Riding on the artificial intelligence boom, Intel achieved its highest revenue growth in the past 15 years, but its stock price plummeted
Special topic: Focus on the second quarter financial report of US stocks in 2026 This financial report comes as the chip giant is working hard to find its position in the AI wave. Revenue surged 25%, the highest single-quarter growth since the third quarter of 2011. The stock is up more than 170% for the year, but has weakened significantly recently. The second-quarter financial report was announced on Thursday. The performance was overall better than market expectations, setting the largest single-quarter revenue increase in the past 15 years. At the same time, the latest performance guidance was also better than agency estimates. The following is Intel's actual performance compared to Refinitiv's (LSEG) market consensus expectations: Adjusted earnings per share: 42 cents, consensus 21 cents Total revenue: $16.1 billion, market estimate of $14.42 billion After the release of the financial report, Intel's stock price surged in the short term, but fell overall on Friday trading day. As of Thursday's close, Intel's gains for the year have exceeded 170%; the stock has soared 84% in 2025, when the U.S. government acquired a 10% stake in Intel in order to support local chip manufacturing. However, the stock price has experienced a correction recently, falling by 28% in July. Even if the stock price weakens in the short term, the AI computing power infrastructure boom is really driving Intel server processor sales. The 25% year-over-year revenue growth was the company's best quarterly performance in nearly 15 years. CEO Chen Liwu said in the financial statement: "Artificial intelligence has created unprecedented demand for computing power. As we steadily implement various strategies, Intel has sufficient confidence to continue to reap long-term growth relying on its full range of CPU products." Latest quarterly guidance Intel gave this quarter’s performance outlook: adjusted earnings per share of 38 cents, with revenue ranging from $15.8 billion to $16.8 billion. Refinitiv analysts expected revenue of $15.1 billion and earnings of 27 cents per share, with guidance above expectations across the board. Intel revealed that it is signing long-term supply agreements with server CPU customers in large quantities. Some agreements lock in product pricing, and another batch of contracts stipulates the total supply of chips. Currently, the memory chip industry generally adopts this type of long-term order model, which allows manufacturers to lock in high prices, seize the pricing initiative, and prevent the risk of a downturn in the AI cycle. Intel has currently signed 10 long-term supply agreements; Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner said that the company's current production capacity supply is tight, and the procurement needs of data center customers have exceeded the existing capacity limit. "Customers continue to send signals that there is strong and sustainable support for corporate computing power spending," Zinsner said on an analyst earnings call. On June 2, 2026, Intel CEO Chen Liwu attended the Computex in Taipei, China. Intel continues to increase capital expenditures and plans to achieve substantial growth in capital investment next year, fully promote the transformation of its foundry business, and undertake chip manufacturing orders from external customers. Zinsner said in an interview that Intel’s new generation 14A advanced process is more mature than previous generations of processes in the corresponding research and development cycle. Intel's foundry business revenue for the period was US$5.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 31%. "I want investors to clearly see that capital expenditures will rise overall in the future. The vast majority of new investments will be used for the purchase of factory production equipment," Zinsner said in the call. However, as of now, Intel has not officially announced a major external foundry customer, and the market and potential partners are still waiting to see. At this stage, Intel's wafer fabs still mainly produce their own chips. Earlier this week, Chen Liwu welcomed his first public foundry customer during his tenure - Fortinet ( Fortinet ), but this security chip is manufactured using a mature and old process, not an advanced process. The company's gross profit margin rebounded to 42%, compared with 2.5% in the same period last year. Intel attributed the improvement in gross profit margin to revenue scale effects, an increase in the proportion of high-margin chips, and product pricing optimization.