Intel Slides Despite Strong Quarter as Street Weighs $20 Billion Capex Plan

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC ) delivered its strongest revenue growth in more than 15 years on Thursday, but the stock slipped Friday in volatile trading. 4 billion, with adjusted earnings of 42 cents per share doubling the 21 cents expected. 3 billion, and third-quarter guidance came in well above consensus.

Shares jumped as much as 12% after hours before reversing Friday, down over 6% and trading near $94. Prediction markets saw the quarter coming. Polymarket traders had Intel at 95% to beat estimates earlier in the week. Wall Street Weighs The Bill CFO David Zinsner raised 2026 capital expenditure guidance from $18 billion to more than $20 billion, and said 2027 would be “significantly above” that, but noted Intel could tap capital markets for funds.

Intel this month committed 5 billion euros to its Leixlip campus in Ireland to boost output of Xeon server chips it reportedly cannot supply fast enough. 4 billion as capex consumed it. Investors have reason to be wary of the spending. 65 trillion, according to a Nikkei Asia study, and Alphabet Inc.

(NASDAQ: GOOGL ) fell this week after its own free cash flow turned negative for the first time. 68 trillion in annual compute revenue to pay for itself, while the global software industry generates less than $800 billion. The market that prices this fear most directly, Polymarket’s AI bubble market, gives just 16% odds of an industry downturn by year-end, a figure that has swung between 9% and 30% this year. 09 billion.

Bulls counter that 18A yields have reportedly hit 85%, up from 65% a quarter ago, and that this week’s cloud deal runs on that node. S. ” Despite the pullback, Intel shares remain up roughly 140% year to date. Image: Shutterstock