Intel Fourth-Quarter Sales Beat Estimates During Turnaround

(Bloomberg) — Intel Corp. reported better-than-feared fourth-quarter revenue, sending shares up with rekindled hopes for a turnaround.

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In the fourth quarter, Intel reported revenue of $14.3 billion, ahead of analysts’ estimates. Shares gained as much as 2.9%.

Still, the path ahead remains a challenge, the company said. First-quarter revenue will be $11.7 billion to $12.7 billion, the Santa Clara, California-based semiconductor company said Thursday in a statement, missing the $12.85 billion average analyst estimate. Profit excluding some items will be break-even, compared with the 8 cents a share analysts were projecting.

Investors and analysts are waiting for the appointment a new leader who will determine the company’s future and address options that include a breakup. Bloomberg and other media outlets have reported that competitors are considering bids for all or parts of the company that gave Silicon Valley its name. The chipmaker didn’t give a status update on its search for a new CEO.

Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner, who is interim co-CEO, said in an interview that some customers had “pulled in” demand in the fourth quarter, trying to avoid possible tariffs. That’s causing a steeper fall-off in the first quarter, he said. “We’ve got to be prudent around the uncertainty across the markets.”

Intel, until recently the world’s largest chipmaker, ended 2024 with its lowest revenue in more than a decade after posting a third straight-annual decline. CEO Pat Gelsinger was pushed out in December by the board, which cited a need for more competitive products.

Gelsinger, who rejoined Intel as CEO in 2021 to turn it around, had insisted Intel was better kept whole and that his expensive spending plan would return its manufacturing and products industry prominence. He didn’t get the five years he said it would take for his plan to bear fruit.

Investors, who initially supported his initiatives, deserted the company’s stock when the costs took a massive toll on finances and rivals better exploited an industry shift to artificial intelligence technology, eroding Intel’s market share. Gelsinger partially addressed the issue by reducing spending and cutting 16,000 jobs, but Intel still needs to improve its chips, particularly artificial intelligence accelerators, in order to restore top-line growth by winning back lost orders.

Intel has been unable to field a viable alternative to Nvidia Corp.’s accelerator chips, products that are delivering more than a $100 billion in annual revenue for that company. Meanwhile, long-time rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is eating away at its market share in personal computer and server processors, and other companies using mobile-phone derived processors are trying to break in to Intel’s biggest market. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. now has the best technology in the industry and is providing outsourced manufacturing to Intel’s rivals, taking away what used to be its main advantage.

(Updates with revenue in the first paragraph.)