Intel’s data center business has just grown by nearly 80% in one year. Its outlook for the fourth quarter just gave the stock its worst day in more than half a century, wiping out nearly $140 billion in market value on Friday.
Intel (INTC) stock closed nearly 29% lower on Friday after the chipmaker’s forecast for the final three months of the year came in well short of Wall Street expectations.
Only one day in Intel’s history was worse, according to Yahoo Finance calculations using Norgate Data closing prices going back to May 1973: July 5, 1974, when the stock fell nearly 30%. Friday’s decline exceeded the roughly 26% drop on August 2, 2024.
The liquidation caps a crazy year. Intel Stock almost quadrupled from early 2026 until its record high on June 22. Even after Friday’s drop, it’s still up nearly 80% this year, but it’s lost more than half its value since that peak.
It also fell below the $80 zone which was holding at its July low and closed at its lowest level since April 22. That erases April 24, when Intel had its best day since at least 1973, a gain of about 24%.
This liquidation is also costly in Washington. Intel’s drop reduced the value of the U.S. government’s 9.9% stake, purchased last August at $20.47 a share, by more than $10 billion. Despite this, the stake is still worth about three times what the government paid.
It also fell below the $80 area that was holding at its July low, and is on track to close below its pre-April 24 level, when Intel had its best day since at least 1973, a gain of about 24%.
The quarter itself was strong. Intel beat estimates with adjusted earnings per share of $0.52 and data center revenue jumped to $7.3 billion.
It was the outlook that caused the stock to fall. Intel expects fourth-quarter revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion, lower than the $17 billion analysts expected, and earnings per share of $0.25 versus a forecast of $0.43.
The PC market is the problem. AI data centers are sucking up memory chips from around the world, driving up prices for laptops and desktops. Intel now expects PC shipments to decline by about 12% this year and another 10% in 2027. Additionally, an accident at its Israeli factory will cost about $300 million in fourth-quarter revenue.
Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon called the outlook “(in a word) terrible” and cut her price target from $110 to $75.
PC makers Dell (DELL) and HP (HPQ) also fell, adding to the rout of tech stocks that hit Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN) after their reports this week.
Intel said the PC crisis won’t end until memory supply and prices return to normal.
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