Intel Corporation (INTC)

Intel designs and makes processors, above all the x86 central processors (CPUs) that remain the foundation of most PCs. It is an integrated design manufacturer, meaning it designs its chips and makes most of them in its own factories, many in the United States. It reports three segments: the Client Computing Group (CCG), processors for PCs and edge devices; Data Center and AI (DCAI), Xeon server processors, AI accelerators, network chips and custom chips; and Intel Foundry, its manufacturing arm, which works almost entirely for Intel's own products but also sells to outside chip companies. The rest sits in an all-other category, chiefly Mobileye, a driving assistance and self-driving company in which Intel held 80%, and IMS, a maker of mask writing tools, 68%. 78910111213141516

How it operates

Intel designs and makes processors, above all the x86 central processors (CPUs) that remain the foundation of most PCs. It is an integrated design manufacturer, meaning it designs its chips and makes most of them in its own factories, many in the United States. It reports three segments: the Client Computing Group (CCG), processors for PCs and edge devices; Data Center and AI (DCAI), Xeon server processors, AI accelerators, network chips and custom chips; and Intel Foundry, its manufacturing arm, which works almost entirely for Intel's own products but also sells to outside chip companies. The rest sits in an all-other category, chiefly Mobileye, a driving assistance and self-driving company in which Intel held 80%, and IMS, a maker of mask writing tools, 68%. 18192021222324252627

It sells mainly to PC and server makers (OEMs), contract manufacturers that build for brands (ODMs) and cloud service providers, and through distributors to thousands of smaller system builders. Three customers, which the filing does not name, took 19%, 12% and 12% of 2025 revenue, 43% together, and substantially all of what they bought came from the product segments. Customers order on purchase orders they can typically cancel, change or delay with little notice and no penalty. 2829303132

By the company's own geographic tagging, the United States brought in 15.8 billion dollars, 29.8% of 2025 revenue, up 21.3%; China including Hong Kong 12.7 billion, 24.0%, down 18.3%; Singapore 9.5 billion, 18.0%; Taiwan 7.7 billion, 14.5%; and other countries 13.6%. The filing counts sales outside the United States at 70% of revenue. 3334

It makes most of its own chips. Each new process is developed in Oregon; in 2025 its key wafer fabs were in Oregon (ramping Intel 18A), Arizona (Intel 7 and 18A), Ireland (Intel 4 and Intel 3) and Israel (Intel 7), and finished wafers went to assembly and test plants in China, New Mexico, Vietnam and Malaysia, with New Mexico its key advanced packaging site and a new packaging plant being built in Malaysia. It also buys tiles, the pieces of a chip, or whole products from TSMC, one of its foundry competitors. It relies on ASML as the sole source of the EUV lithography tools its leading-edge nodes need, and on China, the main source of certain rare earth minerals. 35363738

Building leading-edge plants is the strain on the model. From 2021 through 2024 Intel spent heavily to catch up with its leading manufacturing competitor and to build factory shells ahead of demand. In 2025 it pulled back: capital spending fell 38.8% to 14.6 billion dollars; it began folding its Costa Rica assembly and test work into Vietnam and Malaysia, slowed construction of its Ohio fab and dropped planned expansions in Germany and Poland. It has shared plant costs with investors: Brookfield in Arizona in 2022, and Apollo, which paid 11.0 billion dollars in 2024 for 49% of the venture behind Fab 34 in Ireland. 3940414243

The specifics

Its products rest on its process nodes. Intel 7, in high-volume production since 2017, still made the majority of its processors in 2025, and the company expects it to make almost half in 2026; Intel 4, its first node using EUV lithography, followed in 2023 and Intel 3 in 2024. Intel 18A, in volume since late 2025, brings two firsts in high-volume manufacturing, gate-all-around transistors (RibbonFET) and backside power delivery (PowerVia), and makes the first Core Ultra Series 3 processors. The filing says Intel is the only company doing both leading-edge logic research and high-volume manufacturing in the United States, and one of three, with TSMC and Samsung, investing in 2nm technology. 4445464748495051

Its next node, Intel 14A, is the first it designed from the start for outside customers. The company has said that if it cannot secure a significant external foundry customer for 14A, it may pause or drop 14A and later leading-edge nodes and, over time, shift manufacturing of future products to outside foundries, particularly TSMC. It also says it has so far been unsuccessful in attracting significant customers to its external foundry business. 525354

It names its competitors plainly. In PCs: AMD, which also designs x86 processors, and makers of ARM-based chips, Apple with its M series, Qualcomm with Snapdragon and MediaTek with Kompanio. In data centers: AMD again; NVIDIA, whose GPU systems have seen the highest demand as AI became the dominant source of computing demand; hyperscalers designing their own silicon, including Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft; and Broadcom in custom chips. In foundry: TSMC first, then Samsung, and GlobalFoundries, UMC and SMIC in mature processes. 5556575859

2025 reshaped its ownership. Under an August agreement with the US Department of Commerce, Intel issued the Department 275 million shares and a warrant and received the remaining 5.7 billion dollars of its CHIPS Act grant, with the earlier milestone conditions removed; the government became one of its largest stockholders and agreed to vote as the board recommends. The SEC staff objected to part of Intel's accounting for that agreement, which Intel revised in the fourth quarter. SoftBank Group agreed to buy 87 million new shares and NVIDIA 215 million, alongside a partnership to co-develop x86 products with NVIDIA. In September Intel sold 51% of Altera to an affiliate of Silver Lake Partners for net consideration of 4.3 billion dollars, keeping 49% and recording a pre-tax gain of 5.6 billion. 606162636465666768697071

What drives growth, line by line

Revenue slipped for a fourth straight year, to 52.9 billion dollars in 2025, down 248 million dollars, against 79.0 billion in 2021. The net loss attributable to Intel narrowed to 267 million dollars from 18.8 billion in 2024; gross profit rose 5.9%, and research and development spending fell 16.8% to 13.8 billion as headcount came down. 437214

Client Computing Group (CCG). The largest segment: 32,228 million dollars in 2025 against 33,346 million in 2024. Client revenue, notebooks and desktops, fell 1.1 billion to 27.6 billion: volumes were lower after incentives given to some customers in the first half of 2024 and as customers cut inventory, and in the fourth quarter demand outran supply because Intel's own fabs ran short of wafers, mainly on the Intel 7 node. Average selling prices were roughly flat. Operating income fell to 9,317 million from 11,594 million, on lower revenue, costlier newer products and higher inventory reserves. 737475767778

Data Center and AI (DCAI). 16,919 million dollars, up 794 million, on demand from hyperscale customers: server volume rose 9%, while server average selling prices fell 4% on pricing actions and a mix of lower core count chips, both driven by competition. Fourth-quarter server sales were capped by wafer shortages on Intel 7 and Intel 3. Operating income rose to 3,422 million from 1,414 million, mostly on lower operating expenses after job cuts, and on smaller Gaudi AI accelerator inventory charges. 7374798081

Intel Foundry. 17.8 billion dollars, up 509 million, nearly all of it, 17.5 billion, from Intel's own product groups; revenue from outside customers was 307 million, up 148 million. The operating loss narrowed to 10.3 billion from 13.3 billion, mostly because charges for impaired and faster-depreciated equipment fell to 950 million from 3.3 billion, offset in part by 849 million of inventory reserves on products from the early ramp of Intel 18A. 828384

All other. 3.6 billion dollars, down 38 million, as Altera's results left the books after the sale; Mobileye grew 240 million to 1.9 billion on healthier customer inventories and demand for its EyeQ chips. The category earned an operating income of 264 million after a 57 million loss in 2024. 8586

What comes next, in the company's own words: it expects the wafer supply constraints to persist into 2026, most severe in the first quarter, and says industry-wide shortages of substrates, memory and other components may further limit its ability to meet demand; it expects Intel 18A to make an increasing share of its processors in 2026 and later years; and it plans to keep making the majority of its products in its own factories. 87888990

The read's section on the people who run it is on the People tab.

What the desk infers Inferred

1. Inferred

   The three unnamed customers that took 19%, 12% and 12% of 2025 revenue are most likely large PC makers, among them Dell, HP Inc. and Lenovo, rather than cloud providers buying servers.

   Because

   • Three customers took 19%, 12% and 12% of 2025 revenue. 30
   • Substantially all of what they bought came from the product segments. 31
   • The PC segment, whose direct customers are distributors and makers of PCs, is nearly twice the data center segment: 32,228 million dollars against 16,919 million. 2173
   • The filing's own legal notes name Dell, HP Inc. and Lenovo among the companies selling products built on Intel chips, and Intel is indemnifying Dell, HPI and Lenovo in a patent case over Intel CPUs. 9192
   Confidence 60 of 100Wrong if A filing or disclosure that names a cloud provider, a distributor or a contract manufacturer as one of the three largest customers.
2. Inferred

   Intel Foundry is for now a captive factory: its whole leading-edge program depends on outside customers it has not yet won, because Intel's own products cannot fill the newest nodes on their own.

   Because

   • Of 17.8 billion dollars of foundry revenue in 2025, 17.5 billion came from Intel's own product groups and 307 million from outside customers. 82
   • The segment lost 10.3 billion dollars in 2025. 83
   • The company says the cost structure of its leading-edge nodes requires volumes beyond what its own products supply. 93
   • It says it has been unsuccessful to date in attracting significant foundry customers, and may drop Intel 14A without one. 5354
   Confidence 80 of 100Wrong if A year in which revenue from outside customers exceeds a tenth of Intel Foundry's revenue, or a filing naming a significant external customer committed to Intel 14A.
3. Inferred

   In 2025 Intel was held back by its older workhorse node, not its newest one: most of what it sold still came off Intel 7, and Intel 7 is where its wafers ran short, after it had written down Intel 7 equipment as surplus a year earlier.

   Because

   • Intel 7 made the majority of its processors in 2025. 45
   • Intel 7 chips made up almost half of PC product sales and the majority of data center product sales. 9495
   • Fourth-quarter PC and server revenue were limited by wafer shortages mainly on Intel 7, and for servers also Intel 3. 7680
   • The 3.3 billion dollars of impairments and accelerated depreciation in 2024 related primarily to Intel 7 manufacturing assets. 83
   • Intel 18A only entered high-volume manufacturing in late 2025. 51
   • In 2024 and 2025 the company concluded its manufacturing assets exceeded its capacity needs. 96
   Confidence 70 of 100Wrong if A filing showing that the 2025 wafer shortages came mainly from the ramp of Intel 18A rather than from Intel 7.

Past

Intel's revenue fell from $59 billion in fiscal 2016 to $53 billion in fiscal 2025, down 1.3% a year, and it rose in 5 of 9 years; the deepest fall was 33% from fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2025; net income was positive in 8 of 10 of those years. Over the 3 fiscal years to 2025-12-27, Intel's diluted share count grew about 3.2% a year, and dividends and buybacks returned about 16% of its operating cash flow over 3 years. Its officers and directors filed 3 sales and 2 purchases of their own stock on the open market in the year to 2026-09-30, buying about $10 million. Intel's filings since 2017 show no warning events: no bankruptcy or receivership notice, no debt default notice, no exchange listing notice, no restatement warning, no auditor change, no material cyber incident and no late-report notice. 1

Present

In its latest annual figures on file, for the fiscal year ended 2025-12-27, Intel reported revenue of $53 billion and a loss of $267 million. Return on equity lost about 0 cents for every dollar of shareholders' money, and gross profitability earned about 9 cents per dollar of everything the company owns; it owed about 46 cents per dollar of assets, and its share count grew 5.8% over the year. Intel's revenue of $53 billion in fiscal 2025 ranks in the top 4% by size among 97 graded names in its industry family; a net margin of -0.5% ranks in the bottom 49%; revenue growth of -5.7% a year over the last 3 filed years ranks in the bottom 36%. 21

The chief executive on the record is Tan, Lip Bu, filing under that title since 2025-03-20, 1.6 years; the 18 officers and directors filing in the last fifteen months have been on the record a median of 4.3 years; 14 officer or director changes were reported on Form 8-K since 2023-10-21, against the 18 people in charge now. Shareholders' equity, or net worth on its own books, was $114.28 billion as of 2025-12-27. Book value per share was $25.23 on 4.53 billion diluted average shares for fiscal 2025. 13

Future

A quarterly report for the quarter ending 2026-09-30 is due by 2026-11-09. An annual report for the fiscal year ending 2026-12-27 is due by 2027-02-25. The filing says it expects the wafer supply constraints to persist into 2026, most severe in the first quarter, and says industry-wide shortages of substrates, memory and other components may further limit its ability to meet demand; it expects Intel 18A to make an increasing share of its processors in 2026 and later years; and it plans to keep making the majority of its products in its own factories. 45

Intel's room to grow from the newest filed statements leaves cash of $14 billion against debt of $44 billion as -14.1% of its assets, bottom 15% of its family; cash from operations less capital spending is -9.4% of revenue; a gross margin of 34.8%; research spending of 26.1% of revenue. Revenue grew -5.7% a year over the last three filed years against -1.3% over all 10, slowing; the newest year grew -0.5%; research spending grew -7.7% a year; capital spending grew -16.2% a year. 1

How the company operates From the company read

Intel designs and makes processors, above all the x86 central processors (CPUs) that remain the foundation of most PCs. It is an integrated design manufacturer, meaning it designs its chips and makes most of them in its own factories, many in the United States. It reports three segments: the Client Computing Group (CCG), processors for PCs and edge devices; Data Center and AI (DCAI), Xeon server processors, AI accelerators, network chips and custom chips; and Intel Foundry, its manufacturing arm, which works almost entirely for Intel's own products but also sells to outside chip companies. The rest sits in an all-other category, chiefly Mobileye, a driving assistance and self-driving company in which Intel held 80%, and IMS, a maker of mask writing tools, 68%. 78910111213141516

It sells mainly to PC and server makers (OEMs), contract manufacturers that build for brands (ODMs) and cloud service providers, and through distributors to thousands of smaller system builders. Three customers, which the filing does not name, took 19%, 12% and 12% of 2025 revenue, 43% together, and substantially all of what they bought came from the product segments. Customers order on purchase orders they can typically cancel, change or delay with little notice and no penalty. 1718192021

By the company's own geographic tagging, the United States brought in 15.8 billion dollars, 29.8% of 2025 revenue, up 21.3%; China including Hong Kong 12.7 billion, 24.0%, down 18.3%; Singapore 9.5 billion, 18.0%; Taiwan 7.7 billion, 14.5%; and other countries 13.6%. The filing counts sales outside the United States at 70% of revenue. 2223

It makes most of its own chips. Each new process is developed in Oregon; in 2025 its key wafer fabs were in Oregon (ramping Intel 18A), Arizona (Intel 7 and 18A), Ireland (Intel 4 and Intel 3) and Israel (Intel 7), and finished wafers went to assembly and test plants in China, New Mexico, Vietnam and Malaysia, with New Mexico its key advanced packaging site and a new packaging plant being built in Malaysia. It also buys tiles, the pieces of a chip, or whole products from TSMC, one of its foundry competitors. It relies on ASML as the sole source of the EUV lithography tools its leading-edge nodes need, and on China, the main source of certain rare earth minerals. 24252627

Building leading-edge plants is the strain on the model. From 2021 through 2024 Intel spent heavily to catch up with its leading manufacturing competitor and to build factory shells ahead of demand. In 2025 it pulled back: capital spending fell 38.8% to 14.6 billion dollars; it began folding its Costa Rica assembly and test work into Vietnam and Malaysia, slowed construction of its Ohio fab and dropped planned expansions in Germany and Poland. It has shared plant costs with investors: Brookfield in Arizona in 2022, and Apollo, which paid 11.0 billion dollars in 2024 for 49% of the venture behind Fab 34 in Ireland. 2829303132

New moves

On 2026-08-12, Form 8-K was filed for a disclosure to investors under Regulation FD and another event the company chose to report. On 2026-08-10, Form S-3ASR was filed for a large filer's shelf, ready for sale. On 2026-07-24, a quarterly report for the period ended 2026-06-27 was filed showing the quarterly money story and the trend by quarter. 4

On 2026-10-21, CNBC reported "Intel hits construction milestone at Ohio chip fab that's at least 5 years behind schedule"; on 2026-10-19, MarketWatch reported "Why a former Intel skeptic is giving up his negative call on the stock after four years"; on 2026-10-12, CNBC reported "Intel, Broadcom CEOs warn capital crunch could become AI's biggest bottleneck. " 6

What the desk infers Inferred

1. Inferred

   Intel Foundry is for now a captive factory: its whole leading-edge program depends on outside customers it has not yet won, because Intel's own products cannot fill the newest nodes on their own.

   Because

   • Of 17.8 billion dollars of foundry revenue in 2025, 17.5 billion came from Intel's own product groups and 307 million from outside customers. 5
   • The company says the cost structure of its leading-edge nodes requires volumes beyond what its own products supply. 5
   • It says it has been unsuccessful to date in attracting significant foundry customers, and may drop Intel 14A without one. 5
   Confidence 80 of 100Wrong if A year in which revenue from outside customers exceeds a tenth of Intel Foundry's revenue, or a filing naming a significant external customer committed to Intel 14A.