Intel shares sank nearly 30% on Friday, putting the chipmaker on pace for its worst trading day since 1974, after the company issued a weaker-than-expected forecast and warned that a slump in the PC market would drag into next year, CNBC reported.
The selloff carries a direct cost for American taxpayers. The U.S. government became Intel’s largest shareholder after taking a 10% stake in August 2025, and Friday’s plunge put the value of those holdings on track for a hit of nearly $12 billion, according to Reuters. The drop was set to wipe more than $146 billion off Intel’s total market value, Reuters reported.
NEW: $INTC PERP ON @HyperliquidX IS DOWN 28% SINCE INTEL'S WEAK Q4 GUIDANCE, NOW AT $65.61
INTEL STOCK CLOSED AT $92.07 YESTERDAY AND OPENED AT $68.36 TODAY, ON PACE FOR ITS WORST DAY SINCE 1974
A STOCK CLOSE BELOW ~$64.50 WOULD BE ITS WORST DAY EVER pic.twitter.com/m62cPzJ3mG
— DEGEN NEWS (@DegenerateNews) October 30, 2026
Strong quarter, weak outlook
The damage came from guidance, not the latest quarter. Intel reported third-quarter revenue of $16.5 billion, up 21% from a year earlier, and said data center and AI revenue jumped 78% to $7.3 billion, according to the company’s earnings release and CNBC. Adjusted earnings of 52 cents a share topped the 40 cents analysts expected, CNBC reported, citing LSEG.
But Intel forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion and adjusted earnings of 25 cents a share, well below the $17.1 billion and 43 cents analysts were expecting, according to CNBC. “We see the PC slowdown continuing at least through the first half of next year,” Intel finance chief David Zinsner said in the release. Reuters reported that Zinsner also said Intel does not expect positive cash flow this year.
CNBC reported that the outlook was hurt by a plant shutdown in Israel and soaring prices for memory and other components, which are raising PC costs. Global PC shipments fell 4% in the second quarter from a year earlier, according to Counterpoint Research data cited by CNBC.
Ripple effects across tech
Intel’s warning spread beyond the company. Other U.S. chip stocks, including AMD, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Broadcom and Micron, fell between 4% and 12%, Reuters reported, and the cost of insuring Intel’s debt against default rose to an all-time high. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped more than 2% in early trading, Xinhua reported, as Amazon also slid after its own earnings.
Analysts at D.A. Davidson downgraded the stock to neutral from buy on Friday, arguing in a note that the PC weakness is too severe to justify the stock’s valuation, according to CNBC.
The fall is a setback for CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took over in March 2025 to lead a turnaround, CNBC reported. Intel shares had climbed about 150% this year before the report, according to CNBC, helped by demand for processors used in AI work. Tan said in the earnings release that “demand for our CPUs remains robust” and that Intel’s top priority is adding supply for its Xeon data center chips.
Investments from the U.S. government and Nvidia have shored up Intel’s finances, Reuters reported. The company had $21.84 billion in cash at the end of September against $46.32 billion in long-term debt, according to Reuters. Whether the government’s stake recovers now depends on whether Tan’s turnaround can outlast a PC slump the company itself says isn’t over.
Sources
Sources cited
Sources
- Original post: DEGEN NEWS (@DegenerateNews) on X, Oct 30, 2026
Posts on X are shown as published by their authors; claims in them are attributed, not independently confirmed unless the article says so. If an embedded post does not load, these links open the originals.