According to Geektime, the stock closed at $65.76 after losing more than 30% during the session. Analysts had expected fourth-quarter revenue of about $17 billion, and according to TechCrunch Intel also forecast its gross margin falling to 37% from 43%. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said customers are signalling a PC slowdown because of memory prices and availability. The drop cut about $12 billion from the value of the US government's stake in the company, and AMD, Dell and HP shares fell about 10% the same day.
At the same time, Intel is dealing with the mid-October explosion at its Fab 28 plant in Kiryat Gat, which killed two workers and seriously injured another. According to Tom's Hardware, the plant was shut for about two weeks, and CFO Dave Zinsner said production would restart by the end of the week. The company expects a hit of about $300 million to fourth-quarter revenue, a similar amount in the first quarter of 2027, and about 2 points of fourth-quarter gross margin because of wafer write-offs.
The main impact is on server processors made on 10nm-class and Intel 7 processes, at a time when Intel is already struggling to meet demand for server chips. The company has not said which Xeon families are affected, how many wafers were damaged, or when the plant will return to full output, and according to Geektime it cannot yet estimate the full damage or the insurance payout.
