Intel Q3 FY2026: revenue up 21.0%, EPS $0.60, Q4 guide steps down
Intel beat on both lines and grew revenue 21.0%, but the fourth-quarter guide resets the story: revenue down 6.1% sequentially and gross margin near 37.5%. The split inside the quarter — Data Center and AI up 78.0%, client computing down 5.1% — is where the read is. Below: the scorecard, the guidance track record, and what the balance sheet says about the $23 billion raise.
1 · Expected vs. Actual
Free preview belowGAAP EPS of $0.60 beat the $0.4043 consensus by about $0.20, and non-GAAP EPS of $0.52 was up 126.0% from $0.23 a year ago. The GAAP number needed help: pre-tax income of $3.98 billion included $330 million of equity investment gains and $1.13 billion of interest and other income, the bulk of it a $1.005 billion mark-to-market gain on escrowed shares. Strip those out and you get the $0.52 non-GAAP figure, which is the cleaner read on the operating business.
Revenue of $16.51 billion rose 21.0% from $13.65 billion a year ago and beat the company's own $16.3 billion midpoint guide. Growth was lopsided: Data Center and AI delivered $7.32 billion, up 78.0%, while client computing fell 5.1% to $8.10 billion. The segment lines sum to $22.80 billion rather than $16.51 billion only because they include $6.29 billion of sales between Intel's own units, which get eliminated at the total.
Fourth-quarter revenue is guided to $15.0–16.0 billion, a $15.5 billion midpoint, down 6.1% from the $16.51 billion just reported. Gross margin is guided to 37.1–38.0%, roughly 5.5 points below the 43.0% delivered in Q3. GAAP EPS guidance of $0.10 versus $0.25 non-GAAP looks alarming, but most of that $0.15 gap is the guided GAAP tax rate of 31% against an 11% non-GAAP rate.
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Figures on this page come from the company's original SEC filings. The analysis is generated automatically and checked against validation rules, but may still contain errors or omissions. Not investment advice. · Generated 2026-11-03
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