Intel Guides Q4 Well Below Consensus; Fab 28 Blast Adds Supply Risk
INTC has more than doubled off its 52-week low of $32.89.
Summary
Intel guided Q4 revenue to $15–$16B with adjusted EPS of $0.25, both under analyst expectations, and the stock fell 23% in after-hours trading Thursday. Management raised 2026 capex to $20B for foundry expansion even as projected gross margin slides to roughly 38% from 44.1% in Q3. An Oct 14 explosion at Fab 28 in Kiryat Gat, Israel disrupted operations and creates near-term supply and production continuity risk. CEO Lip-Bu Tan says AI-driven data-center demand outstrips supply because of raw-material bottlenecks and the temporary Israeli fab closure, with Xeon supply expansion the top priority while PC weakness is expected into at least H1 next year. Offsetting the bad print, Intel will supply Diamond Rapids Xeon processors to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure over multiple years, is buying quantum software firm Classiq, released the Intel 14A 0.9 process design kit, and has begun shipping Clearwater Forest, its first 18A server product.
At the time of this announcement, INTC was trading at $70.87 on NASDAQ in the Technology sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $486.7B. The 52-week trading range was $32.89 to $142.35. This news item was assessed with negative market sentiment and an importance score of 8 out of 10. Source: Wiseek News.