Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC, XETRA:INL) shares rose more than 14% afterhours as the company’s first quarter earnings came in ahead of Wall Street expectations and it issued better-than-expected guidance for the current quarter.
For the second quarter of 2026, Intel forecast revenue between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion, above Wall Street expectations of about $13 billion. The company also guided to Q2 non-GAAP EPS of $0.20, well above estimates of $0.10.
For Q1, Intel reported non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.29, significantly above the consensus estimate of $0.01.
Q1 revenue was $13.6 billion, an increase of 7% compared with $12.7 billion in the same period a year earlier. The result exceeded analysts’ expectations of roughly $12.4 billion.
Revenue growth was primarily driven by strength in Intel’s data center and artificial intelligence-related businesses, alongside continued demand for its CPU products. The company’s data center and AI business achieved revenue of $5.1 billion for the quarter, up 22% year-over-year and above estimates of $4.41 billion.
Gross margin improved to 39.4% on a GAAP basis and 41% on a non-GAAP basis, reflecting improved product mix and operational efficiencies.
CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the company is benefiting from rising demand for compute infrastructure tied to AI workloads.
“The next wave of AI will bring intelligence closer to the end user, moving from foundational models to inference to agentic,” Tan said. “This shift is significantly increasing the need for Intel’s CPUs and wafer and advanced packaging offerings.”