Intel had a simple mission heading into the fourth quarter of 2024: Don’t make things a whole lot worse than they already are. It succeeded for the most part, beating consensus estimates for overall revenue, Data Center AI revenue, and earnings-per-share.
That does not mean all arrows were pointing upward. Intel’s fourth-quarter overall revenue came in at just under $14.3 billion, a year-over-year 7% decline. Data Center AI (DCAI) revenue was down 3% year-over-year to $3.4 billion. Revenue in the Intel Client Computing Group (CCG) was down 9% year-over-year to $8 billion, while the Network and Edge (NEX) unit, though typically Intel’s smallest revenue producer, jumped out with 10% year-over-year revenue growth to $1.6 billion. On a full-year measure, all three units saw revenue grow slightly during 2024, compared with 2023, with CCG growing 4%, and DCAI and NEX up only 1% apiece.
Intel Foundry continued to suffer, with Q4 revenue of $4.5 billion, down 13% year-over-year. The foundry business posted $17.5 billion in revenue for the full year of 2024, but a $13 billion operating loss as well.
Intel’s outlook for the current quarter, while not what some observers hope it would be, was not exactly surprising. The company is forecasting first-quarter 2025 revenue of $11.7 billion to $12.7 billion, a figure described as “soft” and “weak” in media reports, but Intel said the lighter forecast was due to “seasonality," ongoing inventory management issues, and lack of clarity around Trump tariffs.
Intel co-CEO Michelle Johnston-Holthaus, leading off Intel’s first earnings call since the departure of former CEO Pat Gelsinger, told those on the call that Intel in its rebound efforts is focusing more on customer problems and how to solve them, than on concerns about Intel’s broader AI market positioning and messages.
“As I think about our AI opportunity, my focus is on the problems our customers are trying to solve, most notably, the need to lower the cost and increase the efficiency of compute,” she said. “AI is not a market in the traditional sense. It's an enabling application that needs to span across the compute continuum, from data center to the edge. As such, a one-size-fits-all approach will not work, and I can see clear opportunities to leverage our core assets in new ways, to drive the most compelling Total Cost of Ownership across the continuum.”
All in all, Intel’s Q4 did nothing to worsen the company’s current plight. As Patrick Moorhead, chief analyst of Moor Insights & Strategy, said on CNBC just after the earnings report hit the wires, “I think the expectations here were anything that wasn't a disaster would be a positive. I mean, they did miss on their guide [guidance], but they did hit on EPS and revenue.”
That may not be much, but Intel’s biggest questions don’t have to do with its current numbers. Instead, they have to do with the company’s future: Will it be acquired? What is Intel Foundry’s future? Who will be the next CEO? We continue to wait for answers.