Focus: U.S. Stock Q2 2026 Earnings Season
Core Highlights
This earnings report arrives as the chip giant aggressively positions itself within the artificial intelligence wave.
Revenue surged 25%, marking the highest single-quarter increase since Q3 2011.
The stock has gained over 170% year-to-date but has shown notable weakness recently.
Intel reported its second-quarter earnings on Thursday, with overall results surpassing market expectations. The company recorded its largest single-quarter revenue gain in nearly 15 years, while its forward guidance also exceeded analyst estimates.
Here is how Intel’s actual performance compared to the LSEG market consensus:
Adjusted earnings per share: 42 cents, versus the expected 21 cents.
Total revenue: $16.1 billion, versus the expected $14.42 billion.
Following the earnings release, Intel shares briefly spiked in after-hours trading but trended lower during Friday’s regular session.
As of Thursday’s close, Intel shares had gained more than 170% year-to-date in 2026. In 2025, the stock surged 84% after the U.S. government took a 10% stake in the company to support domestic chip manufacturing. However, the stock has recently undergone a correction, falling 28% in July.
Despite the short-term share price weakness, the AI infrastructure boom has genuinely boosted Intel’s server processor sales. The 25% year-over-year revenue increase represents the company’s best quarterly performance in 15 years.
In the earnings statement, CEO Lip-Bu Tan said: "Artificial intelligence is generating unprecedented demand for computing power. As we steadily execute our strategic plans, Intel is well-positioned to capture sustained long-term growth with its full range of CPU products."
Quarterly Guidance
Intel provided its outlook for the current quarter: adjusted earnings per share of 38 cents on revenue in the range of $15.8 billion to $16.8 billion. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had forecast revenue of $15.1 billion and earnings per share of 27 cents, meaning the guidance surpassed expectations across the board.
Intel disclosed that it is signing a large number of long-term supply agreements with server CPU customers. Some of these contracts lock in product pricing, while others agree on total chip supply volumes.
This long-term contract model is now common in the memory chip industry, allowing manufacturers to secure higher prices and maintain pricing power as a hedge against a potential downturn in the AI cycle. Intel has already executed 10 long-term supply agreements. Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner stated that the company’s current production capacity is tight, with demand from data center customers exceeding existing capacity limits.
During the analyst earnings call, Zinsner said: "Customers continue to signal that enterprise computing spending has strong, sustainable support."
The PC client chip business saw revenue rise 13% year-over-year to $8.9 billion, remaining Intel’s largest business segment. The true driver of high growth, however, was the data center business, which reported a 59% revenue surge to $6.3 billion. Intel anticipates that PC unit sales will likely be flat in the third quarter due to shortages in memory chip supply.
Intel is continuing to ramp up capital expenditures, planning for a significant increase next year as it aggressively pushes forward with its foundry business transformation to take on chip manufacturing orders from external customers. In an interview, Zinsner said that Intel’s next-generation 14A advanced process is maturing better than previous generations at this point in the development cycle. Intel’s foundry business generated $5.8 billion in revenue for the quarter, a 31% increase year-over-year.
During the call, Zinsner stated: "I want investors to clearly see that overall capital spending will trend upward. The vast majority of the new investment will go toward factory production equipment."
However, Intel has yet to announce a major external foundry customer, leaving the market and potential partners in a wait-and-see mode. For now, Intel’s wafer fabs are primarily producing the company’s own chips. Earlier this week, Intel announced its first publicly disclosed external foundry customer under CEO Tan’s tenure — Fortinet. However, this security chip is being manufactured using a mature, older process, not an advanced one.
The company’s gross margin rebounded to 42%, compared to just 2.5% in the same period last year. Intel attributed the margin improvement to revenue scale effects, a higher proportion of high-margin chips, and product pricing optimization.
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