"The next wave of AI will bring intelligence closer to the end user... This shift is significantly increasing the need for Intel’s CPUs." – CEO Lip Bu Tan
Intel Surges Past Q1 2025 Expectations, Stock Jumps 22%
Intel Corporation reported its first-quarter 2025 earnings on Thursday, handily surpassing analyst expectations with revenue reaching $13.6 billion. The company also provided second-quarter guidance well above consensus estimates, sending the stock up over 22% in after-hours trading.
Financial Performance
Intel’s first-quarter results exceeded forecasts across key metrics:
- Revenue: $13.6 billion — a 7% year-over-year increase
- Adjusted EPS: $0.29 (analyst estimate: $0.01)
- Data Center and AI Revenue: $5.1 billion (analyst estimate: $4.41 billion)
For Q2 2025, Intel guided revenue between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion, well above the consensus estimate of $13.06 billion.
In the year-ago quarter (Q1 2024), Intel reported EPS of $0.13 on revenue of $12.67 billion.
CEO Statement and Market Context
CEO Lip Bu Tan commented on a major shift in the AI landscape:
"The next wave of AI will bring intelligence closer to the end user, moving from foundational models to inference to agentic. This shift is significantly increasing the need for Intel's CPUs and wafer and advanced packaging offerings."
Tan noted that demand for Intel's x86-based CPUs is strong, with supply constraints currently limiting further growth. He emphasized the company is "embracing our roots as data driven, paranoid, and engineering driven," referencing former CEO Andy Grove’s philosophy.
Tan further stated: "A year ago the question was whether Intel could survive; now the focus is on adding manufacturing capacity."
CFO Dave Zinsner added that the ratio of GPUs to CPUs in AI data centers is shifting, with inference workloads requiring fewer GPUs per CPU compared to training.
Company Background and Strategy
Lip Bu Tan became CEO in March 2025, succeeding Pat Gelsinger. The U.S. government acquired a 10% stake in Intel after Tan started, a move attributed to national security.
Intel faces competition from Nvidia (which recently released its first standalone CPU), AMD, and ARM-based server chips.
Regarding Intel's foundry business, Tan has not committed to the 14A manufacturing process without committed customers. On the Terafab partnership with Elon Musk and Tesla, Tan described it as a broad relationship without providing specifics on 14A customers.
Challenges
Intel faces headwinds from a broader memory chip shortage that is suppressing PC sales. According to IDC, the global PC market is expected to decline 11.3% in 2026, though revenue is predicted to grow 1.6% due to higher average selling prices.
Previous Quarterly Results (Q2 2024)
For context, Intel reported second-quarter earnings on August 1, 2024. The company reported EPS of $0.38 on revenue of $16.1 billion, surpassing analyst estimates. Data center revenue reached $6.3 billion, and client computing revenue was $8.9 billion.
Intel guided Q3 2024 revenue between $15.8 billion and $16.8 billion. CFO Dave Zinsner attributed those results to "robust demand and improved execution." Intel also confirmed layoffs in its data center business as part of a restructuring effort. The stock rose approximately 4% in premarket trading following those results.