Intel made a profit again last quarter. The chip giant reported losses several times in the past year due to declining demand for PCs. However, quarterly profit is still 71 percent lower than a year ago.
Intel posted the latest quarter a net profit of $297 million, compared to $1.02 billion in the same period last year. The company makes a profit for the second quarter in a row after a series of losses due to the declining PC market. Intel reports that sales from laptop and PC chips were still 3 percent lower than a year ago. Sales from data center and AI chips also fell compared to 2022. Total sales amounted to $14.2 billion, 8 percent less than in the third quarter of last year. Turnover and profit were higher than the company previously expected.
Intel also reports that its Intel Foundry Services, the new business through which it produces chips for third parties, achieved significantly higher sales than last year. The company’s manufacturing arm achieved revenue of $311 million last quarter, up 299 percent from the same period in 2022. IFS revenue accounted for 2.1 percent of Intel’s total revenue last quarter.
The manufacturer further emphasizes that its technology roadmap is on track. Intel recently started production on its Intel 4 process, marking the first use of EUV lithography. Next year, production of Intel 18A, the most advanced node on Intel’s public roadmap, will begin. According to the chipmaker, there is already ‘a major customer’ who will produce chips on that node upon release and who has made an advance payment. Intel does not say which customer it concerns. The chipmaker previously signed agreements with several companies, including Qualcomm, Amazon and MediaTek.
Intel also says that it sees the production of Arm chips as a growth opportunity for its IFS business. The company also responds to rumors from the Reuters news agency that Nvidia and AMD are working on Arm CPUs for the PC market. “Arm and Windows client alternatives generally play relatively insignificant roles in the PC business,” said CEO Pat Gelsinger according to CNBC against journalists and analysts. “We take all competition seriously, but with history as our guide I don’t think we see it as potentially very great.”