Intel has reported its second-quarter earnings, surpassing revenue expectations but falling short on earnings per share (EPS), primarily due to impairment charges. The company also announced a significant reduction in its workforce, planning to cut 15% of its employees and bring the total headcount to approximately 75,000 by the end of 2025. Additionally, Intel has canceled factory expansion projects in Germany and Poland and will slow down the construction of its facility in Ohio.
For Q2, Intel posted an adjusted loss per share of $0.10 on revenue of $12.8 billion. Analysts had expected an EPS of $0.01 on $11.8 billion in revenue, based on Bloomberg’s consensus data. In comparison, during the same period last year, Intel reported an adjusted EPS of $0.02 on the same revenue figure. The company attributed the shortfall to an $800 million non-cash impairment and depreciation charges for tools deemed unusable, as well as a $200 million one-time charge for the quarter, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
Despite the weak earnings, Intel gave an optimistic revenue forecast for the third quarter, projecting between $12.6 billion and $13.6 billion. This range exceeded Wall Street’s estimate of $12.6 billion. Initially, Intel’s stock rose by more than 2% following the earnings release but later reversed course, closing down 3.66% at $22.63 and dropping further in after-hours trading.
Intel's Products business, which includes its core offerings such as laptop and desktop CPUs and AI chips, generated $11.8 billion in revenue—above the expected $10.9 billion. Meanwhile, the Foundry segment, which is focused on producing chips for third-party clients, brought in $4.4 billion, slightly above expectations. However, this part of the business continues to face challenges in gaining traction.
Intel faces growing competition from rivals like AMD, whose market capitalization now stands at $262 billion, compared to Intel’s $98 billion. Qualcomm is also intensifying its push into the PC chip space with its new Snapdragon X series chips. In contrast, Nvidia continues to dominate the AI chip sector with a massive $4 trillion market cap.
Intel had previously secured deals with Microsoft and Amazon to manufacture chips using its advanced 18A technology. Although earlier reports raised questions about the future availability of 18A to outside clients, CEO Tan has reaffirmed the company’s commitment to expand internal capacity for this technology, which could attract future third-party customers.
