Intel shares fell roughly 29% on Friday to $65.76 after the company's fourth-quarter outlook came in well below Wall Street expectations, marking the stock's worst day since the 1970s. The third quarter was stronger, with revenue of $16.5 billion up 21% year over year and adjusted EPS of $0.52 beating the $0.40 expectation. Data Center and AI revenue jumped 78% to $7.3 billion, while Client Computing Group slipped 5% to $8.1 billion.
For Q4, Intel expects revenue between $15 billion and $16 billion against a consensus of around $17 billion, with adjusted EPS of just $0.25. Non-GAAP gross margin is expected to fall to about 38% from 44% in Q3, partly due to a plant shutdown in Israel costing $600 million in lost revenue.
CFO David Zinsner said Intel sees the PC slowdown continuing at least through the first half of next year, expecting the PC market to shrink by about 12% in units this year and another 10% decline in 2027. Rising memory prices are the main culprit, pushing up system costs and squeezing IT budgets.
Source: TechPowerUp News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing