Intel beats third-quarter profit estimates as cost cuts, investments pay off

Intel beat expectations for September-quarter profit as CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s drastic cost-cutting measures helped the chipmaker shore up its finances amid a slew of high-profile investments in the company.

Shares were up 7 per cent in after-hours trading. This marks the Santa Clara, California-based company’s first earnings announcement after multibillion-dollar investments from Nvidia and Japan’s SoftBank as well as an unprecedented US government stake, with investors anticipating a major cash boost.

Intel received the SoftBank money in the third quarter but has not yet received Nvidia’s cash, finance chief Dave Zinsner said in an interview with Reuters.

The investments are expected to be a major lifeline for Intel, which has been struggling to maintain its dominance in the PC and server central processing unit markets as it competes with Advanced Micro Devices, while repeated attempts to break into the AI chip market commanded by Nvidia have not produced results.

After its share price dropped about 60 per cent last year due to these concerns, Intel stock has risen nearly 90 per cent so far in 2025 thanks to the new investments in the company, helping it outperform the stock of artificial-intelligence chip leader and Wall Street darling Nvidia.

“Shares popped after-hours based on better-than-feared guidance ex-Altera, visible cost and gross margin progress, AI-PC buzz, and $15B of fresh strategic funding that shores the balance sheet,” said Michael Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital.