Intel (INTC) Q1 2026 earnings report
An Intel Xeon 6+ knowledge heart CPU wafer on show at Intel Technology Tour in September 2025. Intel Xeon 6+ is predicted to launch within the first half of 2026.
Courtesy: Intel
Intel reported first-quarter earnings Thursday that blew previous Wall Street’s expectations, because the struggling chipmaker exhibits indicators of a revival.
Shares of the US chipmaker jumped 15% in after-hours buying and selling.
Here’s how the corporate did, in contrast with estimates from analysts polled by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 29 cents adjusted vs. 1 cent anticipated
- Revenue: $13.58 billion vs. $12.42 billion anticipated
Intel has been a Wall Street darling of late, with its top off greater than 80% this 12 months as of Thursday’s shut, after hovering 84% in 2025. The chipmaker has been championed by the Trump administration, which turned the US authorities into the most important shareholder final 12 months as a part of an effort to carry chip manufacturing stateside. Nvidia and SoftBank additionally invested billions in Intel.
But the enterprise, which fell method behind rivals Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices During the early phases of the synthetic intelligence increase, it hasn’t been seeing a lot momentum.
That might lastly be altering. Revenue elevated 7.2% from $12.67 billion a 12 months earlier. That follows year-over-year income declines in 5 of the previous seven quarters.
Intel stated it expects second-quarter income between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion, and adjusted earnings per share of 20 cents. That’s properly above analyst expectations for income of $13.07 billion and EPS of 9 cents.
Intel noticed the strongest development in its knowledge heart enterprise, the place it is beginning to get traction in AI due to surging demand for central processing items (CPUs). Revenue in that division climbed 22% to $5.1 billion.
The once-sleepy CPU market has taken off as agentic workloads shift compute wants past Nvidia’s graphics processing items (GPUs) which have dominated AI up to now. That rising CPU demand underpinned Intel’s current $14 billion buy of a 49% stake in its Ireland chip fab that it had beforehand offered to Apollo Global Management.
Intel remains to be dropping cash, however much less of it. The firm stated its web loss narrowed to $887 million, or 19 cents a share, from $4.28 billion, or 73 cents per share, a 12 months earlier.
Intel has an uncommon technique in the case of chips. As an built-in gadget producer, Intel makes its personal merchandise whereas additionally manufacturing the silicon that powers them. Most chipmakers outsource the advanced and dear manufacturing course of to large chip fabrication crops run by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
Foundry income at Intel rose 16% from a 12 months go to $5.4 billion, though a lot of its foundry enterprise consists of constructing its personal chips
—CNBC’s Kristina Partsinevelos contributed to this report.
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