Intel Corp.’s stock popped in Thursday afternoon action after Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger gave an upbeat signal about the chip giant’s business.
The company is tracking above the midpoint of its third-quarter outlook, Gelsinger said at a Deutsche Bank conference, noting a healthy client business. Intel previously said to expect $12.9 billion to $13.9 billion in revenue.
“Inventory levels are solid,” Gelsinger said, according to a transcript provided by AlphaSense/Sentieo. “Our market share is improving. We’re about to go into a next major product … so we feel good about where we are, and we feel good about the road map of capabilities going forward.”
Gelsinger added that Intel’s
INTC,
data-center business is “right where we thought it would be at this point.” The company had projected that the third quarter would be down a bit sequentially as the company worked through inventory.
Intel shares were up 1.5% in afternoon action Thursday, after rising as much as 3% earlier in the session.
Don’t miss: Intel offers a ‘breath of fresh air,’ but Wall Street still has concerns about the stock
Gelsinger also discussed some dynamics beyond the quarter, including as relates to Intel’s foundry business, calling out a “large customer prepay” for its 18A process technology.
“We want to get public with some of the customer names over time, and we still hope to do that this year, but getting a significant customer prepay is a pretty profound statement of affirmation of their confidence if they’re putting prepays on our balance sheet for us,” he said.
Gelsinger was optimistic that Intel’s foundry business could benefit from geopolitical dynamics as companies move to diversify their supply chains, although he also noted that Intel’s technological capabilities in advanced packaging could pay off during a time of industry shortages.
“I believe this will prove to be a big on-ramp for foundry customers, because if I can satisfy a near-term urgent need, get them comfortable with us and trusting us as their foundry supplier, my ability then to ramp them as a major wafer supplier as well, I think is huge,” he said.
Opinion: Intel sees a huge AI opportunity — but its clock is ticking
Read the full article here
