Intel closed the second quarter of 2026 with revenue of $16.1 billion and adjusted earnings of $0.42 per share, the company’s fastest revenue growth in more than 15 years. Revenue rose 25 percent year on year, helped mainly by data centers and artificial intelligence.
The result came in well above Wall Street projections. Adjusted profit per share was almost twice the level analysts had expected, and Intel shares gained more than 11 percent after the report. The data center and AI division expanded revenue by 59 percent year on year to $6.3 billion.
Business Insider notes that the numbers may indicate Intel is starting to recover part of the ground it lost after missing the early phase of the AI boom and falling behind Nvidia.
Data center layoffs and lingering challenges
Better results do not mean the company’s problems are solved. Intel still faces the consequences of earlier production delays, its removal from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the need to cut costs. The company has announced job cuts in its data center unit, even though that segment is now responsible for much of the growth.
The central element of Intel’s strategy is Intel Foundry, its contract chip manufacturing business for external customers. The goal is to compete with Taiwan’s TSMC and make results less dependent on chips designed only for Intel’s own products.
Foundry’s losses
Intel Foundry, however, remains unprofitable. According to data cited by Business Insider, the segment recorded a $2.1 billion loss and has still not won large clients, which are crucial to the success of the whole strategy.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan attributes the improvement to more efficient management, greater accountability among teams, and a stronger focus on customers. The latest report suggests the restructuring is beginning to pay off, but Intel’s lasting return to the technological forefront will be decided by the ability to make chip production profitable and maintain rapid growth in AI.
Source: WNP.PL, Photo: Damrong Rattanapong / Shutterstock
