Intel Stock Plunges 29%, Erasing $140 Billion, After Weak Fourth-Quarter Forecast
Data center sales jumped 78% last quarter, but a PC slump the finance chief expects into next year dominated Friday's trading.
Intel shares fell 28.78% to $65.57 in Friday trading as of 9:46 a.m. ET, erasing about $140 billion in market value, a day after the chipmaker guided to a steep fourth-quarter earnings drop. Its finance chief said the PC slowdown behind the forecast will last at least through the first half of next year, even as data center sales surged 78%.
A forecast well short of Wall Street
Intel guided to adjusted earnings of 25 cents a share on revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion for the fourth quarter. LSEG consensus, CNBC reported, was 43 cents and $17 billion.
The company gave the outlook on Thursday, and Friday's drop came the next session. The stock was on pace for its biggest one-day fall in at least 275 trading sessions, since Sept. 26, 2025.
Bank of America downgraded the stock to neutral from buy, and Bernstein cut its price target to $75 from $110.
Growth in servers, a slump in PCs
The third-quarter results themselves were solid. Revenue was $16.5 billion, up 21% from a year earlier, and data center and AI revenue reached $7.3 billion, up 78%.
The PC weakness is what the forecast turned on, so the slide landed on a business that was still growing.
A 150% run, already fading
Intel had gained about 150% this year as of Thursday's close, far ahead of the S&P 500's gain of about 13%. The stock had already fallen 21% over the prior month and sat 35% below its highest close of the past year, set on June 22.
Advanced Micro Devices reports results next week, and Nvidia is scheduled to report in mid-November, giving fresh reads on server-chip demand.
Sources
- Intel plunges as much as 26%, briefly on pace for its worst day since 1974 — Yahoo Finance
- Intel guidance disappoints as analysts cut price targets — CNBC
- Intel faces PC weakness, manufacturing constraints, analysts say (INTC:NASDAQ) | Seeking Alpha — seekingalpha.com
- Intel Stock Crashes 23% Overnight and Gets Jim Cramer 'Furious': 'I Am Actually Disappointed' — Yahoo Finance
- Intel (INTC) Q3 earnings report 2026 — CNBC
- The company's filing (Intel Corp.) — SEC filing
- The company's announcement (Intel Corp.) — the company
- Intel Corp. — Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 2026-09-26 (quarterly results) — SEC EDGAR
