Intel reported fourth-quarter revenue of $13.7 billion, beating analyst expectations of $13.3 billion, as per data from Fiscal.ai.
- The company’s earnings per share also beat estimates, coming in at $0.15 versus street estimates of $0.08.
- Intel projected a revenue of $11.7 billion to $12.7 billion for the next quarter, while street expectations were at $12.5 billion, as per Fiscal.ai data.
- The company attributed the lower guidance to chip supply constraints, expected to be at its lowest level in Q1.
Shares of Intel Corp. (INTC) slid over 12% in Thursday’s after-market hours as the company provided a soft outlook for the first-quarter (Q1) 2026 in its latest earnings update.
Intel’s fourth-quarter (Q4) results, however, beat analyst expectations, reporting higher-than-expected revenue and earnings per share.
Results Snapshot
Intel reported Q4 revenue of $13.7 billion, down 4% year-on-year, but beating analyst expectations of $13.3 billion, as per data from Fiscal.ai. The company’s earnings per share also beat estimates, coming in at $0.15 versus street estimates of $0.08.
Meanwhile, the company’s full-year revenue for 2025 came in at $52.9 billion, beating street consensus of $52.5 billion.
“We delivered a solid finish to the year and made progress on our journey to build a new Intel. The introduction of our first products on Intel 18A – the most advanced process technology developed and manufactured in the United States – marks an important milestone, and we’re working aggressively to grow supply to meet strong customer demand,” said Lip-Bu Tan, Intel’s CEO.
However, the company’s outlook for Q1 2026 came in below street expectations. Intel projected a revenue of $11.7 billion to $12.7 billion, with the lower-end of the projection coming in much below street expectations of $12.5 billion, as per Fiscal.ai data.
The chipmaker also projected earnings per share to be nil in the upcoming quarter, versus a street expectation of $0.05.
Supply Constraints
The company attributed the lower guidance to chip supply constraints, expected to be at its lowest level in Q1. “As we enter 2026, our buffer inventory is depleted and the mix shift in wafers towards servers, which began in Q3, will not come out of fab until late Q1 26,” said Dave Zinsner, Intel’s Chief Financial Officer, during the earnings call.
“As a result, and as we stated last quarter, our internal supply constraints are most acute in Q1,” he said. Zinsner added that while this is expected to improve in the following quarter, the company still “won’t be completely out of the woods here.”
However, he said that things would improve through the year progressively. “We expect our factory network to improve available supply beginning in Q2, and for each of the remaining quarters in 2026,” Zinsner said.
To manage limited capacity, Zinsner said Intel will be shifting its wafer supply away from lower-end PC products to prioritize mid- to high-end client chips. Any additional capacity would be redirected to data center products, where demand and strategic importance are higher.
As a result, Intel expects some market-share fluctuations, but its priority is ensuring reliable supply to its largest and most important customers across both data center and client segments, Zinsner added.
How Did Stocktwits Users React?
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around INTC shares remained in the ‘extremely bullish’ territory over the past day amid ‘extremely high’ message volumes.
One user predicted the company’s shares would tank to $37 next week from the current $47 levels.
Another bearish user wondered about how the guidance could be lower, given the recent surge in AI, while touting ‘bubble popping’.
https://stocktwits.com/azstockguy/message/642615489
A bullish user, however, said the earnings were not so bad, highlighting the slew of products that Intel has lined up that would propel it forward in the long run.
Shares of INTC gained over 148% in the past year.
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