Intel records fastest revenue growth in 15 years as AI demand drives 25% surge to $16.1 billion

Intel Benefits From a New Shift in A.I. Spending

The artificial intelligence boom has lifted chipmakers including Nvidia, Micron and South Korea's SK Hynix. Now Intel, which has begun rebounding from a lengthy slump, is benefiting from a new shift in A.I. spending. Tech firms are not only buying A.I. chips known as graphics processing units, made by companies like Nvidia, but also increasingly purchasing microprocessors known as central processing units -- which are exactly what Intel makes. The bonanza was evident on Thursday when Intel reported its financial results. The Silicon Valley company said its revenue had risen 25 percent to $16.1 billion in its latest quarter, driven by nearly 60 percent growth in its data center segment, which includes the chips that power A.I. applications and cloud services. The results and a projection for further growth were well above what Wall Street had expected, pushing Intel's stock up nearly 9 percent at one point in after-hours trading. "A.I. is driving unprecedented demand for compute," Lip-Bu Tan, Intel's chief executive, said in a statement, adding that the revenue growth was the strongest in 15 years. Intel is still losing money from layoff costs and related restructuring charges that Mr. Tan ordered after taking the top job last year. The company lost $11 billion in the latest quarter, more than the $2.9 billion loss from a year earlier. The wider loss stemmed from a revaluation of shares held in escrow in connection with an $8.9 billion investment that the U.S. government made in Intel last year. But Intel's upward trajectory has been unmistakable, and its stock quadrupled between Jan. 1 and the end of June. Much of this has been powered by the change in A.I. spending. Earlier in the A.I. boom, buyers wanted Nvidia's GPU chips, which can do many simpler chores simultaneously. Central processing units, or CPUs, served a role in A.I. servers but might be outnumbered at least four to one by GPUs. More recently, A.I. products called "agents," which can "reason" and act on information, have become more popular. These programs require a greater proportion of microprocessors to run. As a result, research firms such as Creative Strategies have predicted that A.I. data centers will increasingly buy roughly the same number of CPUs and GPUs. "It is not just a GPU game anymore," Santosh Janardhan, Meta's head of infrastructure and co-head of engineering, said recently. "CPUs are becoming at least as important, if not more." This shift benefits not only Intel but its rival Advanced Micro Devices, which has steadily taken market share in data center servers and successfully developed GPUs for A.I. jobs. On Thursday, AMD unveiled more powerful CPUs and GPUs, as well as new "rack-scale" systems -- complete computing boxes taller than a refrigerator -- that integrate CPUs, GPUs, networking, data storage and other technology. Anthropic, a leading A.I. start-up, has also committed to buying the new hardware from AMD -- which estimated the value of the deal at tens of billions of dollars -- and will receive an investment of up to $5 billion from the chipmaker. OpenAI, Anthropic's rival, also said it would use AMD's new rack-scale system. Nvidia, meanwhile, has pushed its own microprocessors for A.I., including a new model called Vera. Huge data center operators like Amazon, Microsoft and Google have also developed custom microprocessors. Intel still retains some unique assets, including its own network of factories. It competes with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the biggest maker of advanced chips, in both building chips and the increasingly important task of packaging them to work together. That so-called foundry service has recently landed customers such as Apple, which had been relying almost entirely on TSMC. Intel said growth in sales of its server chips over the last year had been the strongest on record, with its latest version, Xeon 6, one of its fastest-selling products ever. Though demand for such data center products is strong, Intel said this week that it had trimmed some employees in that business to improve efficiency. It did not disclose numbers. The company added that the productivity of its latest manufacturing technology was improving and that its foundry business had grown 31 percent to $5.8 billion, though the unit posted an operating loss of $2.1 billion.

AI Hype Delivers Intel Its Fastest Revenue Growth in 15 Years

The AI infrastructure buildout is so massive that it has brought a once-ailing Intel back from the dead. The chipmaker recorded its fastest revenue growth in 15 years this past quarter, driven almost entirely, it seems, by rising chip demand from AI data centers. In the second quarter of 2026, Intel's revenue was up 25% from the same time last year, with a 59% increase alone from its data center and AI business, according to the company's earnings report. Once America's leading chip giant, Intel lost its crown to other chipmakers, particularly the GPU king Nvidia, and watched sales plunge. The situation got dire enough that the previous CEO, Pat Gelsinger, was pretty much ousted in December 2024; the new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, took over in March 2025 with promises of a major comeback; and the Trump administration stepped in with a 10% stake in August. Trump and his administration have reportedly been crucial in facilitating deals between Intel and Silicon Valley AI giants like SpaceX, Apple and Nvidia, further securing Intel a place in AI hype. Intel's turnaround story has also coincided with a renaissance period of sorts for central processing units, aka CPUs. GPUs are traditionally associated with AI hype, but CPUs are more Intel's playing field. As enthusiasm around agentic AI grew, CPUs have taken on a renewed role as they are largely considered well-suited for tasks that are at the core of agentic systems like inference workloads. "Our data center-AI group delivered a solid quarter. Demand accelerated across cloud and enterprise as customers increasingly recognize the critical role that CPUs in general and x86 CPUs in particular play in the AI infrastructure," Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in the company's earnings call on Thursday. Memory crisis continues testing PCs But even though the boom in its AI business seems to be serving it well, Intel's main bread and butter is still the chips it makes for PCs. While revenue from the AI and data center business enjoyed a massive 59% rise, the client computing segment (recently renamed to client computing and physical AI group) had a 13% rise in revenue from the same time last year. PC sales and prices have been battered in the past year due to an AI-driven memory chip crisis. Chipmakers have largely shifted focus to address the booming demand from the massive AI data center buildout, leaving high-bandwidth memory chip supply restricted for consumer electronics like PCs and smartphones. With demand still high and supply limited, prices have risen for consumers while sales have suffered. Worldwide PC shipments had their first decline in two years this year, according to International Data Corporation research from earlier this month. Global smartphone shipments have also hit a record low this year due to the same culprit. Intel is expecting the memory shortage to continue hitting PC sales through at least the rest of the year, too. "We expect PC consumption to be sub-seasonal in the second half of the year, and down low double digits percent for all of 2026, impacted by rising memory prices and constraints," Intel CFO David Zinsner said in the earnings call.

Intel posts its highest rate of revenue growth in 15 years, crushing expectations in its latest results

Chipmaker Intel Corp. delivered better-than-expected results today after recording its fastest rate of revenue growth for any quarter since 2011. It also provided guidance that topped analyst's expectations, sending its stock higher in after-hours trading. The company absolutely crushed expectations, reporting earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation coming to 42 cents per share, way ahead of Wall Street's 21 cent-per-share consensus estimate. Revenue for the period grew 25% to $16.1 billion, surpassing the $14.42 billion analyst forecast by a wide margin too. Intel's stock posted a modest gain of just over 3% in the late trading session, but its performance over the entire year has been much more impressive. The shares have now gained more than 170% in the year to date, having jumped 84% last year after the U.S. government revealed its plan to take a 10% stake in the company in order to support the domestic chip industry. That said, Intel's stock had been in a bit of a slump this month prior to today's results, losing 28% of its value in July before today's results arrested that slide. Intel's momentum this year has to do with the artificial intelligence infrastructure boom that originally passed the company by. In recent months, many companies have come to realize the important role Intel's central processing units can play in running so-called AI agents that autonomously perform work on behalf of humans. CPUs can help to make those workloads run with far greater efficiency than graphics processing units alone. Consequently, its server processors are selling like hot cakes these days, said Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan (pictured). "AI is driving unprecedented demand for compute, and as we continue to execute, Intel is well-positioned to capture sustainable growth across our CPU franchise," he added. For the current quarter, Intel said it's targeting earnings of around 38 cents per share on sales of between $15.8 billion and $16.8 billion. That's better than expected, with Wall Street analysts looking for more modest earnings of just 27 cents per share on sales of $15.1 billion. Part of the reason for Intel's confidence is its ability to craft long-term deals with customers over its server CPUs, with some contracts locking in pricing and others focused on chip volume. These kinds of deals have become increasingly common in the chip industry as companies struggle to secure enough silicon to meet their needs. It's especially true in the memory chip business, where demand exceeds that of server chips and memory chip makers are taking full advantage. Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner told analysts on a conference call that its ability to supply server chips to customers is currently constrained, with demand exceeding what it has the ability to manufacture. "Customers continue to signal a strong and sustainable spending environment," he insisted. Despite server chips seeing all of the new demand, Intel's client computing group, which makes chips for personal computers, raked in the most revenue at $8.9 billion. But its 13% revenue growth was far outpaced by that of the data center and AI units, where sales jumped 59% to $6.3 billion in the quarter. Intel said the global memory shortages are likely to hurt PC sales going forward, and it believes revenue in the client computing group will be flat next quarter. To try and meet the growing demand for server chips, Intel is going to target a "meaningful increase" in its capital expenditures, as part of its platform to ramp up manufacturing, not only for its own chips, but those ordered by other companies. Zinsner said Intel's newest 14A manufacturing process is currently ahead of where older processes were at this point in their lifecycle. It has helped to generate a 31% increase in the Intel foundry segment's revenue, which totaled $5.8 billion during the quarter. "I did want to give investors a clear line of sight to expect that the number will be up," Zinsner said on the call with analysts, adding that most of the new capex would go towards tooling up new factories. However, Intel still has not named a single major customer that has agreed to manufacture chips using its most advanced process, despite speculation that it soon will. Intel Foundry primarily serves Intel itself, although it has signed up smaller players such as Fortinet Inc., which is using an older process to make security-focused chips.

Intel Stock Jumps as Earnings Blow Past Expectations Amid Booming AI Demand

Get personalized, AI-powered answers built on 27+ years of trusted expertise. Intel's stock is soaring after another stronger-than-expected quarter. Shares of Intel (INTC) were up more than 5% in recent after-hours trading after the company posted earnings that blew past analysts' estimates. Intel reported adjusted earnings per share of 42 cents on revenue that jumped 15% year-over-year to $16.1 billion, well above the adjusted EPS of 22 cents on revenue of $14.43 billion analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha called for. The company said it expects third-quarter revenue of $15.8 billion to $16.8 billion, and EPS of 38 cents, which are both well above the analyst consensus. CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took over the helm of the struggling chipmaker in March of 2025, said Intel recorded its strongest revenue growth in more than 15 years, thanks to strong demand for its AI hardware. "AI is driving unprecedented demand for compute, and as we continue to execute, Intel is well-positioned to capture sustainable growth across our CPU franchise, ASICs, advanced packaging and vast wafer foundry network," Tan said in a release. CFO David Zinsner told investors during the company's earnings call that Intel's AI-driven business grew more than 70% and accounted for approximately 70% of revenue. The CFO also said the company is "meaningfully increasing" its investments in equipment and space to meet demand, which continues to outpace supply. Earlier in the year, the CFO had warned of supply pressures as the company contends with industry-wide shortages of certain components. Intel said it now expects capital expenditures this year could exceed $20 billion, up from $18 billion previously. Though shares of Intel have pulled back from last month's highs in recent weeks, the stock remains one of the best-performing in the S&P 500 for the year after a flurry of high-profile agreements and better-than-expected results. Shares of Intel were up around 170% for 2026 through Thursday's close.

Intel Posts Strongest Revenue Growth in 15 Years on 'Unprecedented' AI Demand - Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

* Intel stock is trending. What's pulling on INTC shares? Intel Q2 Earnings Highlights Intel posted second-quarter revenue of $16.13 billion, beating analyst estimates of $14.42 billion. The company reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of 42 cents per share, doubling estimates of 21 cents per share, according to Benzinga Pro. Total revenue in the quarter was up 25% on a year-over-year basis. Here's a breakdown of revenue by category: * Client Computing and Physical AI Group: $8.9 billion, up 13% year-over-year * Data Center and AI: $6.3 billion, up 59% year-over-year * Intel Foundry: $5.8 billion, up 31% year-over-year * Total Intel Products: $15.1 billion, up 28% year-over-year * All Other: $700 million, down 33% year-over-year Intel generated $7 billion in cash from operations during the quarter and ended the period with approximately $12.87 billion in cash and cash equivalents. "AI is driving unprecedented demand for compute, and as we continue to execute, Intel is well-positioned to capture sustainable growth across our CPU franchise, ASICs, advanced packaging and vast wafer foundry network," said Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of Intel. "Our Q2 results represent our strongest revenue growth in more than fifteen years, enabled by greater speed, accountability, and customer focus." Intel expects third-quarter revenue to be in the range of $15.8 billion to $16.8 billion versus estimates of $15.01 billion. The company anticipates third-quarter adjusted earnings of 38 cents per share versus estimates of 24 cents per share. Intel executives will further discuss the quarter on an earnings call with investors and analysts at 5 p.m. ET. INTC Shares Rise After The Bell INTC Price Action: Intel shares were up 8.15% in after-hours Thursday, trading at $108.40 at the time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro. Image: Shutterstock.com Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Why is Intel stock surging after-hours? By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Intel Corporation stock surged nearly 9.9% in after-hours trading after the chipmaker delivered its strongest quarterly revenue growth in over 15 years, with second-quarter results that blew past analyst estimates across revenue, earnings, and margins. Revenue came in at $16.13 billion, up 25.4% year-over-year, against a consensus expectation of roughly $14.42 billion, while adjusted earnings per share of $0.42 were double the $0.21 analysts had anticipated. Adjusted gross margin of 41.8% also cleared the roughly 38.8% estimate. The standout within the results was Intel's Data Center and AI segment, which saw revenue jump 59% to $6.3 billion, reflecting surging demand for server CPUs tied to the rapid build-out of AI infrastructure. Intel also disclosed it had signed 10 long-term supply agreements with data center customers, and management noted the company is currently supply-constrained -- a signal of robust forward demand. Adding to the bullish tone, Intel raised its full-year 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $20 billion and issued third-quarter revenue guidance of $15.8 billion to $16.8 billion, comfortably above the $15.10 billion consensus, alongside an adjusted EPS outlook of $0.38 versus the $0.27 expected. CEO Lip-Bu Tan described the results as representing Intel's strongest revenue growth in more than fifteen years, enabled by greater speed and customer focus. The earnings catalyst arrived against a challenging backdrop: Intel shares had fallen roughly 28% through July heading into the report, as investors rotated out of semiconductor winners and the broader chip sector came under pressure. The main U.S. indices offered little macro tailwind on the day, with the S&P 500 essentially flat and the Nasdaq up only modestly, underscoring that today's after-hours move was almost entirely company-driven. Several analysts had raised price targets in the days prior -- including KeyBanc to $155 and Susquehanna to $115 -- reflecting growing optimism around AI-driven CPU demand heading into the print. Taken together, the combination of a massive earnings beat, a well-above-consensus forward outlook, accelerating data center growth, and increased capital investment commitments gave investors the confirmation they needed that Intel's AI-era turnaround is gaining real momentum, propelling the stock sharply higher in extended trading despite a difficult month for the broader chip sector. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.