Intel’s Turnaround Trade Just Got Real

Intel reported first-quarter results after the close Thursday, and this time the comeback pitch came with proof. Revenue rose 7% year over year to $13.6 billion, non-GAAP earnings came in at $0.29 a share, and Intel guided second-quarter revenue to $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion. That was enough to send the stock up by around 15% in extended trading. The after-hours pop was the market’s reaction, but the deeper point was that this report did not lean on one lucky number alone.

The point was not just that Intel beat expectations, but that the report looked almost comically better than the numbers Wall Street had penciled in.Analysts had expected Intel to earn barely a penny or two a share on about $12.4 billion of revenue, but the company instead posted $0.29 in adjusted earnings per share and $13.6 billion of revenue. The strength showed up across the business, too — Client Computing Group revenue came in at $7.7 billion, Data Center and AI brought in $5.1 billion, and Intel Foundry rose 16% to $5.4 billion. For a company that has spent years being the industry's favorite relic, this was a quarter with enough working parts to make turnaround murmurs seem credible.

What really lit up the report, though, was guidance. Intel’s Q2 revenue range landed well above Wall Street expectations, and management pointed to rising demand for server chips tied to AI data centers. There is a little irony in Intel suddenly looking fashionable again because of CPUs, considering the market spent years acting as if only GPUs were invited to the AI party. Now the old workhorse of computing is back in the room, and Intel is making a convincing argument that it is not done yet.

That does not mean every problem vanished in one evening. Intel still posted a GAAP loss of $0.73 a share, driven largely by roughly $4.1 billion in restructuring and other charges, including a goodwill impairment tied to Mobileye. The company is still trying to prove that its revival can last longer than a single exuberant after-hours session. But this was the kind of quarter battered stocks dream about — a beat, a better guide, and just enough momentum to make the bulls sound smart instead of sentimental. For one night at least, Intel began to look like a company that might actually be able to make the turnaround fly.

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