Intel shares gain 7% as chipmaker returns to profitability

Intel posted second-quarter earnings on Thursday, showing a return to profitability after two straight quarters of losses, sending its shares up as the PC market slump begins to ease.

The stock rose 7% in extended trading.

Intel’s stock rally added nearly $9 billion to the company’s market value, which in recent years has fallen far below that of rivals including Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom.

Intel in a press release posted a net profit of $1.5 billion for the quarter, with earnings before certain costs coming to 13 cents per share. 

The company forecast $12.9 billion to $13.9 billion of revenue in its current quarter, ahead of Wall Street estimates. The midpoint of $13.4 billion exceeded estimates but still implies a 12.6% drop over the year in Intel’s business.

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Intel forecast adjusted gross margin of 43% for the third quarter, compared to estimates of 40.6%.

Intel shares have risen about 30% so far this year, compared to a 50% rise on the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index in anticipation of an industry recovery.

The news comes after over four consecutive quarters of deep declines across its biggest segment of personal computers where revenue dropped 12% to $6.8 billion, from $7.7 billion in the year-ago period.

Intel’s foundry business, which aims to make chips for other companies and is its smallest sales contributor, reported revenue of $232 million, up from $57 million a year ago.

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Intel CEO Paul Gelsinger praised the quarter two results noting that the company is “well-positioned” to champion AI.

“Our Q2 results exceeded the high end of our guidance as we continue to execute on our strategic priorities, including building momentum with our foundry business and delivering on our product and process roadmaps,” said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO. “We are also well-positioned to capitalize on the significant growth across the AI continuum by championing an open ecosystem and silicon solutions that optimize performance, cost and security to democratize AI from cloud to enterprise, edge and client.”

In 2022, the chipmaker announced they would invest as much as $95 billion in Europe over the next decade. 

Intel announced that one of the two new fabrication plants would be located in Magdeburg, Germany. They have also recently revealed that they will build a factory in Kiryat Gat, Israel that is due to open in 2027.

Reuters contributed to this report.