{"slug": "intels-ai-fueled-forecast-shows-comeback-is-gaining-steam", "title": "Intel’s AI-fueled forecast shows comeback is gaining steam", "summary": "Intel Corp. delivered a third-quarter revenue forecast of $15.8 billion to $16.8 billion, exceeding the $15.1 billion average analyst estimate, as booming data center spending fueled by artificial intelligence demand drives a turnaround. Data center sales surged 59% in the last quarter, and CEO Lip-Bu Tan said CPU demand is outpacing supply. Intel shares rose about 5.4% in premarket trading following the announcement.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...**By Ian King, Bloomberg**\n\n[Intel Corp.](/tag/intel/) delivered a revenue forecast that shattered Wall Street estimates as booming data center spending fuels a long-awaited turnaround.\n\nSales will be $15.8 billion to $16.8 billion in the third quarter, the company said Thursday. Even the low end of that range would easily clear the $15.1 billion average analyst estimate.\n\n**RELATED: Intel breaks ground on Santa Clara chip manufacturing hub**\n\nThe outlook underscores Intel’s gains with [data center](/tag/data/) customers, which are clamoring for chips to satisfy demand for artificial intelligence computing. Sales in that segment soared 59% last quarter, more than double the pace of Intel’s overall revenue.\n\nIntel shares were up about 5.4% in premarket trading in New York on Friday.\n\nIntel will still need to deliver over the longer run, but the latest results are a good sign, said Jay Goldberg, an analyst at Seaport Group.\n\n“You have the near-term momentum to carry you into the longer-term fundamentals,” Goldberg said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.\n\nThe stock had already more than doubled this year before the report, lifted by growing confidence in Intel’s comeback plan.\n\nChief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan, who took the reins last year, is working to position Intel as a key beneficiary of AI spending. Though Nvidia Corp. remains the dominant provider of accelerator chips, which help develop and run artificial intelligence models, the industry’s broader build-out has fueled demand for a range of semiconductors. That includes Intel’s central processing units, or CPUs.\n\nIn data centers, “the CPU is taking off,” Tan said in an interview. “Demand is outpacing our increasing supply, and so those are good problems to have.”\n\nIntel also is making progress in improving its production, Tan said. That’s helping it fill more orders and increasing the chances that other companies will choose to use Intel for outsourced production. Tan declined to discuss specific customer deals, beyond saying there are “multiple engagements,” and said the company should begin to show progress on that front by early next year.\n\nThe Santa Clara, California-based company is boosting its spending on equipment to ensure it can meet demand, both for its own chips and products that it manufactures for others.\n\nChief Financial Officer Dave Zinsner said the company, which had earlier planned to reduce capital spending from a year earlier, is now committed to raising its budget — something it will likely do next year as well. Spending will amount to about $20 billion this year, he said.\n\nIn the second quarter, revenue rose 25% to $16.1 billion. Profit was 42 cents a share, excluding some items. Analysts had estimated sales of $14.4 billion and earnings of 21 cents on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.\n\nTan has spent much of the last year improving Intel’s financial health. That’s included luring investments from the federal government, Nvidia and SoftBank Group Corp. Under an unconventional deal brokered by the White House in August, the US is now one of the chipmaker’s biggest backers.\n\nThe company is seen as pivotal to bringing chip manufacturing back to American soil, following decades of it shifting to Asia. Intel has plans for a massive manufacturing facility in Ohio, though the project has been repeatedly delayed.\n\nUnder Tan’s predecessors, Intel lost its manufacturing technology leadership and failed to capitalize on the AI frenzy. Heavy spending and declining market share led to billions of dollars in red ink.\n\nSince then, a shift in the AI industry’s priorities has been a boon to Intel. Companies are less focused on training AI models and concentrating more on running the systems. That means the general-purpose microprocessor — Intel’s mainstay — is finding favor again.\n\nIntel’s gross margin, the percentage of revenue remaining after deducting the cost of production, widened to 40.4% last quarter on an adjusted basis. That was up nearly 13 percentage points from a year earlier, but profitability remains well below the level when Intel was at the height of its powers. In those years, the chipmaker regularly reported margins north of 60%.\n\nThe Intel Foundry Services division — the company’s factory unit — had sales of $5.8 billion, up 31%. That unit currently relies almost exclusively on Intel product divisions for orders, though it is seeking outside customers. The PC chip division had revenue of $8.9 billion, and the data center unit posted sales of $6.3 billion.\n\n–With assistance from Ed Ludlow.\n\n(Updates with premarket shares. A previous version of the story corrected Zinsner’s title.)\n\nMore stories like this are available on [bloomberg.com](https://www.bloomberg.com)\n\n©2026 Bloomberg L.P.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/intels-ai-fueled-forecast-shows-comeback-is-gaining-steam", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/07/24/intels-ai-fueled-forecast-shows-comeback-is-gaining-steam/", "published_at": "2026-07-24 12:15:38+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-24 13:10:22.282394+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-chips", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Intel Corp.", "Lip-Bu Tan", "Nvidia Corp.", "SoftBank Group Corp.", "Seaport Group", "Jay Goldberg", "Dave Zinsner", "Bloomberg"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/intels-ai-fueled-forecast-shows-comeback-is-gaining-steam", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/intels-ai-fueled-forecast-shows-comeback-is-gaining-steam.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/intels-ai-fueled-forecast-shows-comeback-is-gaining-steam.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/intels-ai-fueled-forecast-shows-comeback-is-gaining-steam.jsonld"}}