TLDR
- Intel (INTC) stock fell about 29% on Friday to close at $65.76, down from $92.07 on Thursday.
- Q3 revenue rose 21% to $16.5 billion, and adjusted EPS climbed 126% to $0.52.
- Q4 guidance of $15 billion to $16 billion in revenue and $0.25 EPS missed Wall Street’s $17.1 billion and $0.43 targets.
- Soaring memory chip prices hurt PC demand, and the CFO expects the slowdown to last through the first half of next year.
- The drop erased nearly $150 billion in market value and cut the US government’s stake to about $28.5 billion.
Intel (INTC) stock closed Friday at $65.76, down $26.31 or about 29%. It had closed Thursday at $92.07. Shares traded as low as $63.20 during the session.
The sell-off followed the company’s third-quarter report and fourth-quarter outlook. Volume hit 455.6 million, more than four times the average of 107.7 million. The stock slipped another 1% in after-hours trading to $64.89.
Intel’s third-quarter revenue rose 21% from a year earlier to $16.5 billion. Adjusted net income jumped 169% to $2.8 billion. Adjusted earnings per share rose 126% to $0.52.
BREAKING: Intel, $INTC, extends losses to -30% on the day, now on track for its biggest decline on record.
Not even the Dot-Com bubble or 1970s saw a decline in $INTC like this. pic.twitter.com/nQgX594Ix9
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) October 30, 2026
Data center and AI sales did the heavy lifting. That segment grew 78% to $7.3 billion. Intel’s client computing business went the other way, with revenue down 5% to $8.1 billion.
Why Investors Sold
The guidance is what spooked the market. Intel expects fourth-quarter revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion and adjusted EPS of $0.25. Analysts had looked for about $17.1 billion in revenue and $0.43 per share.
CEO Lip-Bu Tan pointed to memory chip prices. He said the jump in costs is straining corporate IT budgets and cutting demand for PC processors. In other words, buyers are spending more on memory and less on Intel’s chips.
Tan also flagged a problem closer to home. An accident at Intel’s factory in Israel led to an extended shutdown. That will reduce server chip shipments in the fourth quarter.
CFO David Zinsner said the PC slowdown should continue “at least through the first half of next year.” That is not the kind of timeline traders wanted to hear. The stock sold off hard on the news.
Analysts are also watching the memory market. SK Hynix said earlier this month that it expects memory chip demand to exceed supply through the end of the decade. That could keep pressure on PC makers for a long while.
At one point on Friday morning, Intel was on pace for its worst day since 1974. The company erased nearly $150 billion in market value over the session. Its market cap now sits near $347.6 billion.
Government Stake Takes a Hit
The US government owns a piece of Intel. Last August, the Trump administration took a 9.9% stake at $20.47 per share. That covered 433.3 million primary shares, worth about $8.9 billion at the time.
On Thursday’s close, that stake was worth about $39.9 billion. After Friday’s drop, it is worth roughly $28.5 billion. That is a paper loss of more than $11 billion in one day.
The investment is still well in the green. Friday’s close is more than three times the price the government paid. The stock’s 52-week range runs from $32.89 to $142.35.
Intel now trades at $65.76, with a day’s range of $63.20 to $68.77 and a gross margin of 56.08%.
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