AI is the best thing that happened to Intel this year.
It's also why the stock just fell 22%.
Intel's Q3 was good:
→ Data center & AI revenue: $7.3B, +78%. The CFO called it the strongest data-center growth in 15 years.
→ Adjusted EPS $0.52 vs ~$0.41 expected
→ The CEO says the priority now is finding enough supply to meet "extraordinary demand" for its Xeon server chips
Then they gave Q4 guidance:
→ Revenue $15–16B vs ~$17.1B expected
→ Adjusted EPS $0.25, half of what they just made
→ Gross margin 38%, down from 44.1%
→ And the CFO expects the PC slowdown to last "at least through the first half of next year"
Here's how I read it. The half of Intel that sells to AI data centers is doing great. The other half still sells PC chips, and that's where most of the revenue comes from: $8.1B last quarter, down 5%.
And I think the AI boom is part of what's hurting PCs. Data centers are buying up memory, memory gets expensive, PCs get more expensive, people put off upgrading their laptops. So the same trend that's selling out Intel's server chips is shrinking its biggest business.
There's also the explosion at Intel's fab in Israel on Oct 14. An analyst on air put the hit at about $300M of Q4 revenue. Add that back and the guidance is still a miss.
The stock had more than doubled this year on the AI-comeback story. Tonight's report says the comeback is real, but it's only half of the company.
Would you buy Intel here, or wait until PCs bottom?
@LXPlLXP "if the roles were reversed i'd be paying" is the fairest thing anyone in this story said. the number only looks big because the paycheck was hers
in late 2008 Elon Musk watched Detroit line up for billions meant for clean cars. Tesla later borrowed $465 million and paid it back 9 years early.
in the clip below he explains where a $25 billion clean car fund was going.
Congress had approved the loan program to develop energy-efficient vehicles. then the big three came to Washington, he says, and asked for the money to cover their day-to-day operations.
$15 to $25 billion, by his count, would carry them to about February.
"i'm not kidding. it's not even an exaggeration."
Tesla asked for something else. money to build lower-cost mass market cars, which he calls the exact intent of the law.
"hopefully, there's still some money left over to actually do that after the big three have taken what they will take."
GM and Chrysler both went bankrupt in 2009. Tesla got its loan in 2010 and repaid it in 2013.
who spent the government's money better - Detroit or Tesla?