INTC: Intel Stock Plunges 24% as Weak Outlook Overshadows Strong Earnings Growth

Strong data-center demand couldn’t offset a prolonged PC slowdown and a fourth-quarter forecast pointing to lower sales and thinner margins.

📉 Intel’s outlook gets a sharp downgrade

• Intel shares INTC plunged nearly 24% in after-hours trading Thursday, with disappointing guidance overwhelming stronger quarterly profit.
• The reaction added to a difficult earnings night for technology stocks, with Amazon also falling and Nasdaq 100 futures dropping as much as 2% overnight.
• Third-quarter revenue rose 21% to $16.5 billion, while adjusted earnings increased to $0.52 a share from $0.23 a year earlier. Intel exceeded its own forecasts, but investors quickly shifted their attention to the less reassuring numbers for the quarter ahead.
• Fourth-quarter revenue guidance landed at $15 billion–$16 billion, with adjusted earnings of $0.25 a share. The revenue midpoint implies a roughly 6% sequential decline, while expected adjusted profit per share is less than half the third-quarter result.

💻 PC weakness offsets data-center strength

• Intel expects the PC slowdown to continue through at least the first half of 2027. That extends the challenge beyond the holiday quarter and leaves investors assessing how much support the company can draw from its faster-growing server business while consumer demand remains under pressure.
• The division containing Intel’s PC business posted a 5% revenue decline to $8.1 billion. Data Center and AI revenue, meanwhile, surged 78% to $7.3 billion.
• Those sharply different performances show why a strong AI-related business doesn’t automatically translate into equally strong results across the company.
• Intel’s immediate priority is increasing Xeon server-processor supply, according to CEO Lip-Bu Tan. Management described unusually strong demand, making production capacity an important execution test.

🔎 Traders look beyond the quarterly beat

• Margins face another squeeze in the coming quarter. Intel forecast an adjusted gross margin of 38%, down from 44.1% in the third quarter. That measure tracks revenue remaining after production costs, so the projected decline points to less profit available before other business expenses.
• The selloff lands in a market already questioning the AI investment cycle. Amazon’s spending-heavy results and Alphabet’s earlier disappointment have increased scrutiny across technology.
• The next challenge is whether server growth can offset the PC downturn without further margin pressure. Traders will watch supply improvements and subsequent guidance revisions for evidence.