Intel Shares Fall 30% After 78% AI Growth Reported, Forecast Misses Wall Street

Intel’s stock dropped nearly 30% to $65.15 after the company warned that fourth‑quarter revenue would be between $15 billion and $16 billion, below the $17 billion analysts expected. The decline followed a report that Intel’s data‑center and AI business grew 78% year‑on‑year, its fastest pace in 15 years, and that overall revenue for the quarter rose 21% to $16.5 billion. The market’s focus was on the PC chip division, which generated $8.1 billion last quarter and is projected to see revenue fall more than 20% in the fourth quarter due to manufacturing constraints, high memory‑chip costs, and weaker PC sales. An October 14 explosion at Intel’s Kiryat Gat factory added an estimated $300 million to the fourth‑quarter hit, widening the gap to Wall Street’s forecast by $1.27 billion. The drop is the sharpest one‑day decline in Intel’s history since 1974 and has pushed the cost of insuring Intel’s debt to a record high.