Intel Shares Tumble on Lower 3Q Profit, Weak 4Q Guidance

By Elias Schisgall

Intel logged a lower profit in the third quarter and guided for lackluster fourth-quarter earnings, sending shares sliding after-hours.

The chip maker on Thursday projected that adjusted earnings in the current fourth quarter of 25 cents a share, on revenue between $15 billion and $16 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting fourth-quarter earnings of 45 cents a share on $17.29 billion of revenue.

Shares fell 17% to $76.85 in after-hours trading. The stock closed down 3.6% at $92.07, and has more than doubled in price this year through the close.

The company reported a third-quarter profit of $3.32 billion, or 60 cents a share. That compares with a profit of $4.06 billion, or 90 cents a share, a year earlier.

Stripping out certain one-time items, adjusted earnings were 52 cents a share. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting 41 cents a share.

Revenue grew 21% to $16.51 billion, missing analyst expectations for $16.56 billion.

While revenue from the company's data center and AI segment surged 78% to $7.3 billion, the client computing and physical AI group had revenue decline 5% to $8.1 billion.

Intel Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan said the company has seen headwinds in the personal computer market, with Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner projecting that the PC slowdown will last through at least the first six months of 2027.

"Despite near-term headwinds across the PC industry, demand for our CPUs remains robust, reinforcing our confidence in the long-term growth opportunities for our business," Tan said.

Intel is prioritizing building additional capacity for its Xeon line of CPUs to meet "extraordinary demand," Tan added.

Write to Elias Schisgall at elias.schisgall@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 29, 2026 16:36 ET (20:36 GMT)