(New York) The American semiconductor giant Intel published results on Thursday significantly below expectations, in a context of slowing demand for electronic chips, and communicated very cautious forecasts for the first quarter of 2023.
The group of Santa Clara (California) recorded a net loss of 700 million dollars in the fourth quarter according to a press release, well above the 80 million expected by analysts.
Intel suffered a further downturn in sales in the company’s two most important businesses.
The turnover of components intended for desktop and portable computers thus fell by 36%, while that of data storage centers (data centers) plunged by 33%.
In total, turnover stands at 14 billion (-32% over one year), against 14.49 expected by the market.
The market reacted badly to this publication. In electronic trading after the close of Wall Street, Intel lost nearly 9%.
After going through a stratospheric phase during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IT equipment sector lost momentum in the second half of 2022.
During the conference call presenting the results, the general manager, Pat Gelsinger, mentioned “short-term challenges”, linked “to the trends in demand”. “We expect this weakened economic environment to continue until at least the end of the first half. »
This turbulence particularly affected Intel, which had already been weakened for several years.
In 2020, the company announced delays in the development of its new generation of chips, dubbed Sapphire Rapids. After four postponements, the latter was put on the market in early January.
Arrived at the beginning of 2021 at the head of this institution of American technology, the general manager Pat Gelsinger has embarked on an in-depth reorganization and has favored massive new investments of tens of billions of dollars in new factories in Europe and the United States.
After a difficult 2022, the Californian firm has hardly been bolder for 2023.
It expects a turnover of between 10.5 and 11.5 billion dollars in the first quarter, while analysts expected them, so far, 13.9 billion dollars in revenue, according to a consensus established by FactSet.
Intel also forecasts another net loss in the three months from January to March.
The group confirmed the objectives of its cost reduction plan, announced last year, which provides for savings of 3 billion dollars in 2023 and 8 to 10 billion per year by the end of 2025.