Intel Shares Drop 24% on PC Chip Demand Warning

Intel's share price sank by almost a quarter on Thursday after the company revealed a deep dip in sales of PC processors. The stock started the day at $92.96 and sank to $73 immediately after results were announced. After-hours trading saw the share price reach $70.87, representing a 23.7 percent slump.

Intel reported Q3 revenue of $16.5 billion, a 21 percent year-on-year increase, with datacenter and AI products seeing 78 percent growth. However, client computing revenue fell five percent year-over-year to $8.1 billion. CEO Lip Bu Tan stated that customers signaled a PC slowdown due to memory prices and availability issues. Intel predicts the market for PC chips will shrink by 12 percent next year.

Executives admitted they may struggle to meet demand due to difficulties sourcing key supplies like silicon wafers. CFO Dave Zinsner stated they will likely not fully meet customer requirements for server CPUs in the first half of the next year. Intel plans to shift production capacity from PC chips to datacenter products to meet demand.