SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Intel Corp. said Thursday its third-quarter revenue rose 21% from a year earlier to $16.5 billion, as sales in its Data Center and AI group climbed 78%.
The group took in $7.3 billion. That was Intel’s strongest data center revenue growth in 15 years, according to Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner, who said revenue, gross margin and earnings per share all topped the company’s guidance.
Profit was mixed. On a GAAP basis, net income attributable to Intel slid 18% to $3.3 billion. That works out to 60 cents a share, down from 90 cents a year ago, when the company earned $4.1 billion.
The adjusted numbers went the other way. Leaving out certain items, Intel earned 52 cents a share, more than double the 23 cents it posted last year, with adjusted net income reaching $2.8 billion versus $1 billion.
Margins improved, too. Gross margin came in at 43%, compared with 38.2% a year ago. Operating margin hit 15.3%, roughly triple last year’s 5%. Operations brought in $5.1 billion in cash.
For the last three months of the year, Intel is calling for revenue somewhere between $15 billion and $16 billion, below the $16.5 billion it just reported. It sees earnings of 10 cents a share, or 25 cents excluding certain items. It projected gross margin of 37.1% under standard accounting and 38% on an adjusted basis.
PC-related sales lost ground. Revenue from the Client Computing and Physical AI Group slipped 5% to $8.1 billion.
CEO Lip-Bu Tan acknowledged near-term headwinds across the PC industry but said demand for Intel’s CPUs “remains robust.” His immediate priority is adding supply to meet “extraordinary demand” for the Xeon family, he said.
Intel Foundry revenue rose 58% to $6.7 billion. Like the other segment totals, that figure includes sales between Intel’s own units.
Revenue in the “All Other” category dropped 30% to $700 million. Intel has not consolidated Altera’s results since selling 51% of Altera’s common stock on Sept. 12, 2025.
Over the quarter, Intel finished a $23 billion public equity offering and said it plans to buy Classiq, which makes a quantum software synthesis platform. It also announced plans for a multiyear collaboration with Oracle that would expand Xeon-based computing on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, including planned offerings powered by a next-generation server processor code-named Diamond Rapids.
Acer, ASUS and Lenovo will offer the first Googlebook devices built on Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors, the company said. In October, Intel released version 0.9 of the process design kit for Intel 14A. It is also working with ASML to prepare the industry for High-NA EUV manufacturing.
Dean Jarnac was named executive vice president and chief sales officer.
Zinsner expects the PC slowdown to last at least through the first half of next year. Intel will keep making disciplined investments in capacity and working capital to increase supply, he said.
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