Intel shares soar after AI data centre demand drives strong 1Q result, outlook
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The news: Intel shares surged to their highest level since 2000 after the chipmaker reported first-quarter revenue of USD13.58 billion, beating Wall Street expectations and raised its second-quarter guidance well above analyst estimates, driven by booming demand for its data centre processors from AI workloads.
The numbers: Analysts polled by LSEG had expected revenue of USD12.42 billion, or 11% below what Intel delivered.
Intel’s data centre and AI segment posted revenue of USD5.1 billion, up 22%, also far ahead of the USD4.41 billion analysts had expected. The company forecast second-quarter revenue of between USD13.8 billion and USD14.8 billion, against analyst estimates of USD13.07 billion.
The company actually reported a net loss of USD3.7 billion for the quarter due to two one-time charges. That was a USD3.8 billion writedown related to its Mobileye acquisition and derivative payments related to the US government’s 10% stake. On an adjusted basis it earned 29 cents per share, against an analyst expectation of one cent.
Intel’s shares soared 15% in after-hour trading. The stock had already gained 81% this year before the result, boosted by the US government 10% stake, investments from Nvidia and SoftBank, and a recently announced partnership with Elon Musk’s Terafab chip complex in Austin, Texas.
What they said: "The next wave of AI will bring intelligence closer to the end user,” chief executive Lip-Bu Tan said in a statement. “This shift is significantly increasing the need for Intel’s CPUs.”
