The News: Intel reported its second quarter (Q2) revenue of $12.9 billion, down 15% year over year (YoY). Q2 GAAP earnings loss per share (EPS) attributable to Intel was $0.35; non-GAAP EPS attributable to Intel was $0.13. Read the Intel earnings press release here.
Intel Q2 2023 Results: Return to Profitability Energizes Turnaround
Analyst Take: Intel’s Q2 2023 results exceeded the high end of guidance on the top and bottom line as the company continues to execute its strategy with momentum across process and product technology as well as foundry. On a positive note, Intel has moved on from the $3.5 billion in losses accumulated over the previous two quarters and has returned to profitability in Q2 2023, registering $1.5 billion in profit from $12.9 billion in revenues. Key highlights of Intel’s Q2 2023 included:
Intel’s Diverse Portfolio Initiatives Advance Turnaround Goals
Notably, Intel previously announced the organizational change to integrate its Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group into its Client Computing Group and Data Center and AI Group. This change aims to drive an improved go-to-market capability and accelerate the scale of these businesses, while also decreasing costs.
As such, Intel modified its segment reporting in Q1 2023 to align to this shift and certain other business reorganizations. All prior-period segment data has been retrospectively adjusted to reflect the way the company internally receives information and manages operating segment performance starting in fiscal year 2023.
Of key importance, Intel is on track to attain its objective of achieving five nodes in 4 years. Intel announced implementation of backside power using Intel PowerVia in a test chip, registering notable efficiency and performance gains. PowerVia will be incorporated into Intel 20A, expected to launch in H1 2024.
In CCG, Intel reported ongoing robust demand for its 13th Gen Intel Core processor family, with more than 300 designs expected from OEM partners this year. Plus, Intel is collaborating with Microsoft to drive the development of AI on personal computing, and previewed AI-enabled capabilities of Intel’s upcoming Meteor Lake client PC processors. In advancing CCG portfolio diversification, Intel unveiled the Intel Arc Pro A60 and Pro A60M as new offerings within the Intel Arc Pro A-series professional range of GPUs.
We are keen on DCAI announcing the GA of cloud instances of its 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors by Google Cloud. Additionally, Intel’s AI acceleration capabilities were recognized through validation by MLCommons, which published MLPerf Training performance benchmark data showing that 4th Gen Xeon and Habana Gaudi2 are viable competitive alternatives in the AI market based on price performance factors.
For NEX, Intel, Ericsson, and HPE successfully demonstrated vRAN running on 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Intel vRAN Boost. Moreover, Intel completed an agreement with Ericsson to advance Ericsson’s optimized 5G infrastructure proposition, including advancing open RAN based on Intel Xeon-based platforms to accelerate CSP implementation of programmable, software-defined infrastructure, with Ericsson also using Intel’s 18A process technology for its planned custom 5G SoC.
We view IFS as a Q2 shining star, particularly with announcement that Northrop Grumman and Boeing have committed to joining the US Department of Defense’s RAMP-C program, led by Intel. The program aims to assure domestic access to next-generation semiconductors by establishing and validating a US-based foundry ecosystem to develop and fabricate chips on Intel 18A.
Moreover, we see Intel’s constant improvements of x86 core performance (Performance-core) delivering the step function in CPU architecture vital to powering the next decade of compute. It is designed natively as a wider, deeper, and smarter architecture to expose more parallelism, increase execution parallelism, decrease latency, and improve general-purpose performance as well as augmenting massive data and large code footprint applications, including fast-expanding AI workloads.
Taken together, Intel is forecasting Q3 2023 revenue of approximately $12.9 billion to $13.9 billion with Q3 expectation of EPS attributable to Intel of $0.04 and non-GAAP EPS attributable to Intel of $0.20, reinforcing the expectation of sustained turnaround momentum.
Intel Q2 2023 Takeaways: Key Signs and Return to Profit Point to Durable Turnaround
Overall, we see Intel executing on its strategy across its portfolio, including advancing its five processes in 4 years on time. As such, Intel is solidly positioned to play an integral role in AI workload optimization, demonstrating opportunity outside GPU technology. There were also some positive indications around foundry and packaging as a vehicle to shorter-turn revenue by about 50%, reinforced by the robust revenue growth registered by IFS. From our view, Q2 2023 marked a positive inflection and can be flagged as a potential turning point after several very tough quarters.
Daniel Newman and his co-host of The Six Five Webcast, Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights and Strategy discussed Intel’s earnings in their latest episode. Check it out here and be sure to subscribe to The Six Five Webcast so you never miss an episode.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
Intel Meteor Lake: Placing Bets on On-Device AI
Intel Q1 2023 Results: Adversity Sharpens Focus on Turnaround Strategy
Author Information
Ron is an experienced, customer-focused research expert and analyst, with over 20 years of experience in the digital and IT transformation markets, working with businesses to drive consistent revenue and sales growth.
Ron holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from University of Nevada — Las Vegas and a Bachelor of Arts in political science/government from William and Mary.
Daniel is the CEO of The Futurum Group. Living his life at the intersection of people and technology, Daniel works with the world’s largest technology brands exploring Digital Transformation and how it is influencing the enterprise.
From the leading edge of AI to global technology policy, Daniel makes the connections between business, people and tech that are required for companies to benefit most from their technology investments. Daniel is a top 5 globally ranked industry analyst and his ideas are regularly cited or shared in television appearances by CNBC, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal and hundreds of other sites around the world.
A 7x Best-Selling Author including his most recent book “Human/Machine.” Daniel is also a Forbes and MarketWatch (Dow Jones) contributor.
An MBA and Former Graduate Adjunct Faculty, Daniel is an Austin Texas transplant after 40 years in Chicago. His speaking takes him around the world each year as he shares his vision of the role technology will play in our future.
