Intel profit forecast misses estimates, shares slip

Chipmaker Intel Corp on Thursday estimated second-quarter earnings below Wall Street forecasts despite its greater sales optimism, a sign that the company is still struggling to make money despite early signs of a recovery in global chip demand.

Intel shares fell 2% in extended trading, having gained more than 10% so far this year following a tough 2022.

A fall of about 30% in first-quarter global PC shipments has made some chip industry experts hopeful that an inventory build-up has cleared out, paving the way for fresh orders.

Intel has also ramped up shipping of its most powerful data center chip Sapphire Rapids, which had been delayed for over a year.

The company forecast a second-quarter revenue range with a midpoint of $12 billion, above analysts' consensus estimate of $11.75 billion, Refinitiv data showed.

Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger said in an interview he was "seeing some green shoots, increasing stability in the PC market as inventories have stabilized," adding that he expected the company to hold its position in the data center business.

But Intel predicted second-quarter adjusted losses of 4 cents per share, worse than the 1 cent per share profit that analysts had estimated, according to Refinitiv data.

Intel has also ramped up shipments of its most powerful data center chip, Sapphire Rapids, whose more than one-year delay had allowed rival Advanced Micro Devices AMD.O and ARM-based server CPU makers to take market share from the company.

Gelsigner said he discussed Intel's $5.4 billion effort to acquire Tower Semiconductor TSEM.TA with Chinese government officials on a recent visit. Intel is still waiting on regulatory approval in China to close the deal.

"It was a topic of discussion for many meetings that I had there," Gelsinger said. "We don't have a clear view of when that might occur, but we continue to work hard to reach approval of the acquisition."

Intel has a commanding market share for PC and server processing chips and the company has planned to spend billions of dollars to build out new manufacturing hubs and improve product design and performance.

Revenue from its data center and AI group fell 39% to $3.7 billion. Client computing group revenue, which includes PCs, dropped 38% to $5.8 billion.

Intel's aggressive push has come at a cost

The company in February slashed its dividend payout to a 16-year low, saving cash for investments to catch up with the likes of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd 2330.TW on manufacturing technology and to help grow its business of manufacturing chips for outside customers.

First-quarter revenue of $11.72 billion slightly exceeded estimates of $11.04 billion. Intel said adjusted losses were 4 cents per share, above analysts' expectations of a 15 cent per share adjusted loss.