Intel Stock Plunges 20% After Weak Q4 Guidance Cites PC Market Slowdown
Intel beat Q3 earnings estimates but lowered Q4 revenue guidance due to continued weakness in the PC market, causing shares to drop sharply in after-hours trading.
US chipmaker Intel released its third-quarter earnings report on October 29, 2026. Although adjusted earnings per share and total revenue slightly exceeded analyst expectations, the company's guidance for fourth-quarter revenue fell significantly short of market forecasts, causing shares to plunge approximately 20% in extended trading.
According to CNBC's coverage of the company's data, Intel reported an adjusted EPS of 52 cents for Q3, beating the 40-cent estimate from analysts polled by LSEG. Revenue came in at $16.51 billion, roughly matching the $16.5 billion expectation. However, revenue from the Client Computing and Physical AI group declined 5% year-over-year to $8.1 billion, missing estimates, while Data Center and AI revenue surged 78% to $7.3 billion.
"We see the PC slowdown continuing at least through the first half of next year," said Intel CFO David Zinsner in the earnings release. This statement directly impacted market confidence in the company's near-term performance. For the current quarter, Intel expects adjusted EPS of just 25 cents on revenue between $15 billion and $16 billion, well below the analyst consensus of $17.1 billion in revenue and 43 cents in EPS.
Despite headwinds in the PC business, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan emphasized optimism about the broader portfolio, noting robust long-term demand for CPUs and all computing platforms. The rise of agentic AI applications, such as Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots, which rely on CPUs for task orchestration, is seen as a potential growth area for Intel amidst the GPU-dominated AI wave.