Markets INTC JUL 25, 2026

Intel Q2 revenue jumps 25% to $16.1B, best growth in 15 years as data center sales surge 59%

Non-GAAP EPS of $0.42 doubled the $0.21 consensus; INTC is up 172% YTD but shed 28% in July.

BY HENLEY MARRAST · MARKETS DESK

Intel posted $16.1 billion in Q2 revenue on July 23, up 25% year-over-year and roughly $1.7 billion ahead of the $14.42 billion Street consensus, capping what CEO Lip-Bu Tan called the “strongest revenue growth in more than fifteen years.” Non-GAAP EPS of $0.42 came in at double the $0.21 consensus from analysts polled by LSEG. GAAP EPS was $(2.16), a reminder that the reset charges haven’t finished working through the P&L.

The mix is what matters. Data Center & AI delivered $6.3 billion, up 59%, the segment that markets have spent two years assuming Intel had structurally lost to Nvidia and AMD. Client Computing added $8.9 billion at 13% growth, and Intel Foundry pulled in $5.8 billion, up 31%. On the manufacturing side, 18A output is running roughly 25% above target and up more than 50% quarter-over-quarter, the operational proof point Tan has needed since taking the job.

Tan framed the demand backdrop directly: “AI is driving unprecedented demand for compute.” CFO Dave Zinsner told analysts that “customers continue to signal a strong and sustainable spending environment,” and flagged a “meaningful increase” in 2027 capex to fund equipment, clean room space, and substrates. Guidance for Q3 landed at $15.8 billion to $16.8 billion in revenue and $0.38 in non-GAAP EPS.

Then there’s the tape. Shares rose about 4% after-hours Thursday and 3% in Friday’s premarket, but INTC has already fallen 28% in July, making it one of the ten worst S&P 500 performers this month, even as it sits up 172% year-to-date. The stock, in other words, ran the recovery narrative before the fundamentals confirmed it, and is now paying for the front-loading.

Bank of America’s Vivek Arya called the print “INTC’s best growth rate in the past 15 years” and kept a $160 price target, implying roughly 60% upside from Thursday’s close. Analysts remain on the fence anyway. That posture is the real story: a company delivering a genuine operational inflection into a market that has already priced, sold, and re-underwritten the turnaround, and still can’t decide whether to believe it.

Sources

About the author

Henley Marrast

MARKETS DESK

Henley Marrast covers AI-equity flow, accelerator demand, and earnings prints for AI Sheet Report. She leads coverage of the public AI complex from the New York markets desk, with a focus on the daily tape and quarterly results. She has been writing about technology markets for several years.