quarterly figures
Intel with a slump in sales and billions in losses
Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California. photo
© Andrei Sokolow/dpa
Intel must invest billions in new chip factories to secure its future. But at the same time, revenue is shrinking. After the highest quarterly loss so far, the company boss still dares to hope.
At the chip giant Intel, there is no end to the dry spell in sight for the time being. The semiconductor pioneer closed the past quarter with another slump in sales and a loss in the billions. The management hopes for a better business in the second half of the year, while there should be red numbers again in the current quarter.
Intel posted a quarterly loss of $2.8 billion after being in the black from $8.1 billion a year earlier. It was the highest minus so far for the group, which had been used to success for a long time. Sales fell 36 percent year-on-year to $11.7 billion, Intel announced after the US stock market closed on Thursday.
Cooling down after boom
On the one hand, Intel is struggling with the cooling of the PC market after the boom at the beginning of the pandemic – sales of processors for notebooks and desktop computers fell by 38 percent to $5.8 billion. But technology for data centers also went down again: the division’s sales fell by 39 percent to $ 3.7 billion. Intel lost market share to smaller rival AMD in the lucrative business.
Intel’s car company Mobileye, which specializes in assistance systems and technology for autonomous driving, was a bright spot with sales up 16 percent to $458 million.
Intel boss Pat Gelsinger is trying to get the industry giant back on track after delays in new processor generations and other problems. Among other things, his plan includes making Intel more of a contract manufacturer for other chip providers. The group also wants to expand capacities in Europe with a factory in Germany. That costs tens of billions of dollars, some of which is said to come from government subsidies.
hopes for the second half of the year
For the current quarter, Intel expects revenues between 11.5 and 12.5 billion dollars and again with red numbers. However, Gelsinger is hoping for a recovery in business in the second half of the year. Among other things, it is becoming apparent that the high chip inventories would gradually be reduced. After bottlenecks in the pandemic, many manufacturers had stashed away semiconductors to be on the safe side.
The stock went on a roller coaster ride after the quarterly report. First, it increased by four percent in after-hours trading – because analysts had expected even worse numbers. A little later it turned negative and lost a good 1.5 percent. However, Gelsinger encouraged investors with his optimistic statements and the stock ended after-hours trading almost five percent higher.