Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) had its best quarter in almost 15 years. The firm made $16.1 billion in gross sales, up 25% from a yr in the past, method more than the $14.42 billion analysts expected. Adjusted revenue came in at 42 cents a share, double the 21 cents Wall Street expected. The stock jumped about 4-5% after hours. For the next quarter, Intel expects to make between $15.8 billion and $16.8 billion, nicely above the $15.1 billion analysts had guessed.
Why This Happened
Most of the AI growth so far has been about graphics chips, the form Nvidia makes. Intel makes a completely different form of chip, called CPUs, and those weren’t as central to the AI story until just lately. That’s altering. A new wave of AI, called “agentic AI,” makes use of AI systems to really carry out duties, like writing laptop code, on their own. Running that form of AI wants a lot of CPU energy too, and that’s precisely what Intel sells. The company’s knowledge middle chip gross sales jumped 59% this quarter. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a assertion, “AI is driving unprecedented demand for compute.” Intel’s finance chief, David Zinsner, said the firm can’t make chips fast enough to meet demand proper now, and he advised analysts that “customers continue to signal a strong and sustainable spending environment.”
This is not Intel’s first signal of life this yr either. The stock is up more than 154% in 2026 so far. But it’s also been a tough month, and shares fell 28% in July alone before this report, and they’re still down more than 25% from their document high set on June 22. So this leap is a bounce-back, not a stock making new highs.
That raises a actual query. Is Intel’s turnaround really occurring now, or is this one good quarter inside a stock that’s still recovering from a much larger latest drop?
Intel Corporation (INTC) Just Had Its Best Quarter in 15 Years. Is the Turnaround Finally Real?
The Bull Case
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)’s own numbers back up a actual restoration, not just AI hype. Its revenue margin jumped to about 42%, up from just 2.5% a yr in the past because of agentic AI, which drove actual demand growth in Intel’s knowledge middle chips. Intel offered more of those and also got higher costs. Its PC business grew too, but from larger costs on fewer items offered, not from promoting more chips.
Intel signed 10 long-term offers with knowledge middle prospects, some locking in costs and some locking in how much they’ll buy, a signal prospects are committing to Intel for years, not just this quarter. The company’s chip-manufacturing business, called its foundry, grew gross sales 31% and introduced in $5.8 billion, beating expectations. Intel is now “fully committed” to a new, more superior manufacturing course of called 14A, something it had warned it might have to abandon just last yr if it could not discover a large buyer. It has already signed Tesla as a buyer for that course of, for a project called “Terafab.” Trump announced in April that Apple had agreed to have Intel make some of its chips too, though neither firm has instantly confirmed that deal yet.
Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon summed up the temper on CNBC before this report even came out: “I am feeling better about Intel than I have in a long time.”
The Bear Case
The pleasure still wants proof. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) hasn’t landed one apparent, headline buyer for its most superior chipmaking course of yet. The one new buyer it announced this week, Fortinet, is utilizing an older, less superior manufacturing technique to make security chips, not the cutting-edge course of traders actually need validated. The Apple deal is still unconfirmed by either company. Intel is also spending a lot more money to chase this growth: it just raised its spending plans for this yr from $18 billion to $20 billion, and said spending will rise “meaningfully” again next yr, with most of that going toward new factories. Zinsner also did not rule out promoting more stock to raise money, which could water down the worth of shares traders already own, though he said there’s no particular plan for that proper now. And Intel’s PC chip business, still its largest by income, is expected to go flat next quarter because a scarcity of reminiscence chips, made by other corporations, is raising prices and slowing PC gross sales.
Analyst Shay Boloor put the bar clearly: Intel’s stock can keep climbing only if it turns this quarter’s chip scarcity into regular long-term growth and finally announces actual outside prospects for its most superior factories.
Insider Monkey’s Hedge Fund Data Analysis
Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database exhibits actual, growing confidence in Intel even before this report. 112 hedge funds held Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) stock at the finish of Q1 2026, up from 96 the quarter before, value $8.7 billion whole, up from $7.0 billion. That’s a clear increase in both how many funds own it and how much they’ve put in, so a signal good money was already shopping for into this turnaround story forward of Thursday’s numbers.
Conclusion
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)’s quarter was genuinely sturdy, not just a beat against low expectations. The AI-driven CPU demand is actual, the margins show it, and the foundry business is growing sooner than expected. But the stock’s large leap this week is occurring inside a much rougher month, down 28% in July before this report, and the two issues traders need most, a confirmed main foundry buyer and clear evidence the PC business can deal with the reminiscence scarcity, still have not totally arrived. The next few quarters, not this one, will show whether Intel’s comeback is sturdy or just a short-term good bounce.
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