Key insights
- Intel's Q1 earnings and revenue exceeded expectations, with revenue up 7.2% year-over-year, signaling a potential turnaround. Q2 guidance also beat estimates. The stock jumped 15% after hours. Positive sentiment toward Intel could boost overall semiconductor sector, but Intel still lags behind Nvidia and AMD in the AI space.
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Intel reported first-quarter earnings Thursday that blew past Wall Street's expectations, as the struggling chipmaker shows signs of a revival.
Shares of the U.S. chipmaker jumped 15% in after-hours trading.
Here's how the company did, compared with estimates from analysts polled by LSEG:
Intel has been a Wall Street darling of late, with its stock up more than 80% this year as of Thursday's close, after soaring 84% in 2025. The chipmaker has been championed by the Trump administration, which turned the U.S. government into the largest shareholder last year as part of an effort to bring chip manufacturing stateside. Nvidia and SoftBank also invested billions in Intel.
But the business, which fell way behind rivals Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices during the early stages of the artificial intelligence boom, hasn't been seeing much momentum.
That could finally be changing. Revenue increased 7.2% from $12.67 billion a year earlier. That follows year-over-year revenue declines in five of the past seven quarter.
Intel said it expects second-quarter revenue between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion, and adjusted earnings per share of 20 cents. That's well above analyst expectations for revenue of $13.07 billion and EPS of 9 cents.
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CNBC's Kristina