Intel (INTC) Q3 earnings report 2026

Intel shares plummeted more than 20% in extended trading on Thursday after the chipmaker issued a weak fourth-quarter forecast, citing continued softness in the global PC market.

Here’s how the company did in the third quarter, compared with estimates from analysts polled by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: 52 cents adjusted vs. 40 cents expected
• Revenue: $16.51 billion vs. $16.5 billion expected

Revenue climbed 21% from $13.7 billion a year earlier, the company said in a press release.

However, revenue in Intel’s client computing and physical AI group fell 5% from the same quarter a year ago to $8.1 billion, missing estimates, even as data center and AI revenue jumped 78% to $7.3 billion.

Global PC shipments declined 4% in the second quarter from a year earlier due to soaring costs for memory and other components, according to Counterpoint Research.

For the current quarter, Intel said it expects adjusted earnings per share of 25 cents on revenue between $15 billion and $16 billion. Analysts were expecting revenue of $17.1 billion and EPS of 43 cents, according to LSEG.

“We see the PC slowdown continuing at least through the first half of next year,” Intel finance chief David Zinsner, said in the release. “We will continue making disciplined investments in capacity and working capital to increase supply and support future growth.”

Intel’s forecast reflects the effects of an explosion at a fab in Israel that killed two workers and seriously injured a third earlier this month. The incident will cost the company about $600 million in lost revenue over two quarters, Zinsner said on Thursday’s earnings. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the explosion, which he called an “unfortunate and tragic accident,” caused an “extended shutdown” at the plant, impacting shipments of 10-nanometer chips.

Intel’s stock has been on an upward tear, up about 150% so far this year prior to the earnings report, although it’s down roughly 23% in October over growing concern over the size of the artificial intelligence buildout.

“We will remain disciplined as we invest, and we will not spend $1 of capital unless we have confidence in the health of our products and process technologies, and clear evidence of customer demand,” Zinsner said on the call.

Nvidia, which has become the world’s most valuable company thanks to its dominance in graphics processing units, or GPUs, is scheduled to report results in mid-November. Advanced Micro Devices, a maker of GPUs and central processing units, or CPUs, reports next week.

Known best for its industry-leading CPUs, Intel has been a beneficiary of the rise in agentic AI. While chatbots and large models rely heavily on graphics processors from Nvidia and AMD, agentic applications such as Meta‘s Muse and OpenAI’s Dots lean on CPUs to help orchestrate tasks and data from a computer operating in the cloud.

“Despite near term headwinds…