Intel Predicts Q2 Revenue Above Expectations Amid Strong CPU Demand

(Central News Agency, New York, 23rd, Comprehensive Foreign Dispatch) Chip giant Intel announced its second-quarter revenue forecast today, surpassing Wall Street expectations and indicating strong market demand for Intel's data center artificial intelligence (AI) server processors.

Intel's stock price surged 19% in after-hours trading, pushing its market capitalization up by a massive $64 billion in one fell swoop, and extending its stock rebound for the year to 81%.

According to aggregated data from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), Intel estimates its second-quarter revenue will be between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion, far exceeding the market expectation of $13.07 billion; the adjusted earnings per share forecast for the second quarter is 20 cents, also significantly better than the market expectation of 9 cents.

Reuters reported that Intel had missed the opportunity of the rapid development in the AI industry over the past few years due to management missteps; CEO Lip-Bu Tan has initiated a revitalization plan, strengthening Intel's financial constitution through asset sales and layoffs.

Tan has simultaneously secured large investments and reached cooperation agreements with the US government, SoftBank, and Nvidia, adding necessary funds for Intel's manufacturing operations and giving investors high confidence in the company's long-term growth potential.

Although Intel missed the early stages of the AI craze, as cloud service providers shift towards the "deployment" phase of AI models, new opportunities have emerged in the high-end central processing unit (CPU) market. During the conference call, Tan spoke to analysts about the strong rebound in demand for CPUs.

CFO Zinsner stated in an interview that one of the reasons the company can be optimistic about its revenue performance is that Intel chose to raise chip prices to cope with the cost increases brought about by production expansion.