Intel Reports 7% Revenue Gain as AI Demand Fuels Biggest Beat in Years
First-quarter revenue of $13.6 billion topped Wall Street estimates by more than $1 billion, driven by a 22% jump in the Data Center and AI segment, sending shares up more than 20%.
Intel reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $13.6 billion on April 23, a 7% increase year over year and more than $1 billion above consensus Wall Street estimates, signaling that the beleaguered chipmaker is finally gaining traction in the artificial intelligence era. Its Data Center and AI segment generated $5.1 billion in revenue, up 22% from the same quarter a year earlier.
Shares surged more than 20% after the earnings release, pushing the stock past levels not seen since the dot-com era.
CEO Lip-Bu Tan framed the results as evidence that Intel's CPUs and advanced packaging technologies are becoming central to the next wave of AI deployment, which he described as moving intelligence closer to the end user and toward agentic computing. The quarter marked Intel's sixth consecutive period of revenue above its own forecasts.
For the second quarter, Intel guided revenue of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion, another figure that exceeded prior analyst expectations.
Several new partnerships underscore Intel's growing role in AI infrastructure. Google announced a multiyear collaboration to continue deploying Intel Xeon processors across its cloud instances and to co-develop custom ASIC infrastructure processing units optimized for AI workloads.
Nvidia selected Intel Xeon 6 as the host CPU for its DGX Rubin NVL8 systems. Intel also disclosed a partnership with SambaNova to design heterogeneous hardware combining GPUs, SambaNova RDUs, and Intel processors.
Despite the strong revenue results, Intel posted a net loss attributable to the company of $3.7 billion for the quarter, primarily reflecting $4.07 billion in restructuring charges as it continues overhauling its manufacturing operations. On a non-GAAP basis, earnings per share were $0.29, up from $0.13 a year earlier.
The U.S. government, which acquired a roughly 10% stake in the company during the previous administration at a cost of approximately $8.9 billion, saw that position surge in value to around $35 billion.
Read the original reporting at The New York Times.
