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NEW YORK, Oct. 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kirby McInerney LLP reminds Alphabet Inc. (“Alphabet” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: GOOGL; GOOG) investors of the December 1, 2026 deadline to seek the role of lead plaintiff in a pending federal securities class action. Investors are encouraged to contact Lauren Molinaro of Kirby McInerney LLP by email at [email protected], or fill out the contact form below to discuss your rights or interests in the securities fraud class action lawsuit at no cost.

[CONTACT THE FIRM IF YOU SUFFERED A LOSS]

What Is The Lawsuit About?

The lawsuit has been filed on behalf of investors who purchased securities during the period of May 19, 2026 through July 16, 2026, inclusive (“the Class Period”). The lawsuit alleges that Alphabet failed to disclose that: (i) the Gemini 3.5 Pro was delivering disappointing training results; and (ii) as a result, the launch of Gemini 3.5 Pro would be significantly delayed.

On July 16, 2026, Bloomberg reported that Google is “months behind schedule on delivering Gemini 3.5 Pro, its most powerful flagship AI model,” due to the Company’s ongoing coding efforts. The report stated, “[l]ate last month, Google updated the data being used to train Gemini in an attempt to improve [its] skills, but the results were disappointing.” On this news, the price of Alphabet shares declined by $16.46 per share, or approximately 4.4%, from $370.92 per share on July 15, 2026 to close at $354.46 on July 16, 2026.

On September 30, 2026 Google announced that it would release Gemini 4 Argon, which had already been rolled out “to a set of trusted cyber defenders through [its] Fairwind Program,” and Reuters reported that “Google no longer plans to release Gemini 3.5 Pro.”

[CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE LAWSUIT]

What Should I Do?

If you purchased or otherwise acquired Alphabet securities, have information, or would like to learn more about this investigation, please contact Lauren Molinaro of Kirby McInerney LLP by email at [email protected], or fill out the contact form below, to discuss your rights or interests with respect to these matters at no cost.

What is the Lead Plaintiff Deadline?

Courts do not consider applications filed after this deadline. The lead plaintiff oversees the litigation on behalf of the class and may influence key decisions, including litigation strategy and settlement. Courts regularly appoint individual investors as lead plaintiffs, not only institutions. Learn more about the lead plaintiff process and eligibility requirements here.

[LEARN MORE ABOUT THE LEAD PLAINTIFF PROCESS]

Kirby McInerney LLP is a New York-based plaintiffs’ law firm concentrating in securities, antitrust, whistleblower, and consumer litigation. The firm’s efforts on behalf of shareholders in securities litigation have resulted in recoveries totaling billions of dollars. Additional information about the firm can be found on Kirby McInerney LLP’s website.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

Contacts
Kirby McInerney LLP
Lauren Molinaro, Esq.
212-699-1171
https://www.kmllp.com
https://securitiesleadplaintiff.com/
[email protected]

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Amazon shares fell as much as 9% in after-market trading Thursday after the tech giant reported third-quarter earnings below Wall Street analysts’ expectations.

Earnings per share came in at $1.89 on a diluted basis, down from $1.95 in the year-ago quarter, while total revenue climbed 12% to $201.9 billion. The consensus forecast from analysts called for earnings per share of $1.97 and $202.25 billion in revenue.

In its earnings release, Amazon noted that the downturn in earnings resulted mainly from the $9.5 billion in pre-tax gains in the third quarter of 2025 related to investments in AI mega-startup Anthropic.

Along with the disappointing financials, Amazon also said its fourth-quarter revenue will be between $240 billion and $247 billion, suggesting it has a chance to fall below the Street outlook of $244.5 billion.

Amazon stock dropped below $230 after hours after surrendering 4% during the regular trading day. The after-hours decline improved to 6% but shares were still down ahead of a scheduled conference call with top execs at the top of the next hour.

Investors have been punishing tech stocks this week as they seek indications of returns on the sector’s heavy spending on artificial intelligence. A number of major players, among then Google and parent Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Nvidia, are collectively pouring hundreds of billions of dollars a year into the AI buildout.

Alphabet shares plunged 12% Thursday, a record downturn for the large-cap issue erasing $500 billion in market value, after the company missed third-quarter revenue targets and reported a slowdown in its core search business. Shares in Nvidia are down 6% over the past month amid mounting skepticism, and Meta stock has taken a 5% hit over the past week despite a solid quarterly earnings report last week.

Amazon’s web services unit, AWS, has been shelling out significant sums on AI, but CEO Andy Jassy said in the earnings release that the spending helped lead to 39% revenue growth in the quarter and a projected annual run rate of $184 billion. Revenue will grow by more than 40% in 2027 and ’28, he predicts. “Our AWS investment in functionality and infrastructure is working,” he said.

While bulls and bears will continue to argue about the ROI on AI spending, there were plenty of disconcerting signs across the full quarterly report. Advertising, which had been growing by more than 20% each quarter for the past few years, actually declined from the second quarter. It came in at $19.6 billion, a 12% uptick from the year-ago period. In its Prime Video business, which has been expanding its sports rights portfolio alongside other content investments, advertising has been a key element in the strategy since it launched across all Prime titles in 2024.

High atop the Amazon earnings release was a caveat reminding investors that Prime Day, a major tentpole for e-commerce, moved earlier this year and occurred in the second quarter in most large countries. Last year and in years past, it took place entirely during the third quarter. Had that shift not happened, Amazon estimated its revenue increase would have been about 4% higher.

Amazon's cloud-computing unit reported more rapid third-quarter growth than analysts had projected.

Revenue came in at $45.98 billion, up 39% year over year and above the $45.29 billion consensus among analysts polled by StreetAccount, according to a statement. Growth in the second quarter came in at about 37%.

"Our core compute and storage revenue grew at their fastest rates in several years," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on a conference call with analysts. The AWS growth rate was the highest since the fourth quarter of 2021.

Amazon remains the top cloud by revenue, but growth has also sped up at rivals Alphabet and Microsoft. On Wednesday Alphabet said the Google Cloud business, which contains infrastructure and Google Workspace subscriptions, more than doubled in the third quarter.

All the major clouds have been racing to build data centers that can accommodate high artificial intelligence demand. During the quarter, AWS announced plans to expand its portfolio of Nvidia graphics processing units that can handle AI workloads.

AWS also acquired data analysis startup DuckLabs and signed deals with Meta and OpenAI, according to the statement.

The AWS segment generated $17.77 billion in third-quarter operating income, up 55% and more than the $16.97 billion StreetAccount consensus.

The unit now accounts for almost 23% of Amazon's revenue, a record.

On Wednesday, Microsoft published its first earnings report that contained revenue from its Azure cloud in dollars. Azure is 72% the size of AWS, up from 58% two years ago.

AWS came before Azure and the Google Cloud Platform, with its first services appearing in 2006.

"With our continued pace of innovation, new core and AI functionality, enterprises wanting to run their core and AI workloads in AWS, and the amount of capacity that we're adding each year, we believe that AWS can grow north of 40% in each of 2027 and in 2028, and be a trillion-dollar revenue business in the next five to 10 years," Jassy said.

Google has been pumping up its cloud revenue by making its tensor processing units for AI available outside its own facilities. Now Amazon will adopt the strategy with its Trainium chips for training models, starting in late 2027.

"With Trainium demand so strong, customers continue encouraging us to make it available outside of AWS. We intend to do so late in 2027," Jassy said.

watch now

Amazon spent more than $77 billion on property and equipment in the third quarter, far more than analysts' estimates, while pursuing its effort to build data centers and fulfill demand for AI services. Anurag Rana and Poonam Goyal break down the numbers on "Bloomberg The Close.

Image Credits:Getty Images

Amazon reported its third-quarter earnings on Thursday and missed analysts’ expectations for both its total revenue and earnings per share. There were other murky numbers in the report that scared investors, too, including how much cash the company is burning through.

But the report did have a big, bright spot: Its cloud unit, Amazon Web Services, beat revenue expectations and grew a whopping 39% compared to the year-ago quarter.

Here are the numbers:

Net sales increased 12% to $201.9 billion. But analysts were expecting $202.2 billion, according to FactSet. Fully diluted earnings per share were $1.89. Analysts were expecting $1.97. AWS sales reached $45.98 billion. Analysts were expecting $45.29 billion. In addition, Amazon said that AWS operating income grew to $17.8 billion, compared with $11.4 billion in the third quarter of 2025. But here’s the biggest ouch of the report: Free cash flow fell to a negative of $42.4 billion for the trailing 12 months — meaning the company was spending far more cash than it generated. This compares to positive free cash flow of $14.8 billion for the trailing 12 months ended September 30, 2025.

The big spending was driven largely by Amazon’s investments in AI, the company said. With one quarter left in its fiscal year, Amazon reiterated that it still expects to end its 2026 with cash capital expenditures of about $220 billion.

To put that in perspective, the company forecast fourth-quarter net sales of between $240 billion and $247 billion. The fourth quarter is typically a retailer’s biggest, thanks to the holiday shopping season. That means Amazon expects to spend almost as much on capital expenditures, largely for AI, over the full year as it expects to bring in from sales in the fourth quarter.

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Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) came out with quarterly earnings of $1.89 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.01 per share. This compares to earnings of $1.95 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of -5.97%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this online retailer would post earnings of $1.83 per share when it actually produced earnings of $1.88, delivering a surprise of +2.73%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates just once.

Amazon, which belongs to the Zacks Internet - Commerce industry, posted revenues of $201.94 billion for the quarter ended September 2026, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.08%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $180.17 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

Amazon shares have added about 10.3% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 13.1%.

What's Next for Amazon?While Amazon has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Amazon was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $2.55 on $245.65 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and $12.69 on $829.47 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Internet - Commerce is currently in the bottom 29% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

Booking Holdings (BKNG - Free Report) , another stock in the same industry, has yet to report results for the quarter ended September 2026. The results are expected to be released on November 3.

This online booking service is expected to post quarterly earnings of $4.48 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +12.6%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 0.4% higher over the last 30 days to the current level.

Booking Holdings' revenues are expected to be $9.56 billion, up 6.2% from the year-ago quarter.

Microsoft delivered robust Q1 results with 19% YoY revenue growth and strong AI-driven Azure momentum. MSFT's profitability showed minor gross margin softness, but operating margin expanded; Q2 guidance signals continued top-line strength but with margin pressure. CapEx remains elevated, with over $50B planned for Q2, justified by robust AI demand and accelerating Azure growth.

New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - October 29, 2026) - Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP is investigating potential securities violations against The Boeing Company ("Boeing" or the "Company") (NYSE: BA).

CLICK HERE TO RECEIVE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS INVESTIGATION

If you are a Boeing investor and have suffered losses, or if you have information that could assist in the Boeing investigation, you may CLICK HERE to contact us. You may also contact Kaplan Fox by emailing [email protected] or by calling (646) 315-9003.

On October 27, 2026, Boeing shares fell over $20 per share, or 10.7%, after reporting third quarter 2026 results, including that 737 MAX production stabilization is taking longer than expected and cutting its full-year aircraft delivery outlook. This contrasts with statements the Company made on July 28, 2026 in connection with reporting second quarter results that Boeing was "on track to deliver 500 airplanes this year."

According to an article published in The Wall Street Journal on October 27, 2026, "Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg told investors that the step up to 47 jets a month on its 737 MAX production lines 'didn't go as smoothly' as the previous rate increase, a challenge that affects profitability" and "[t]he company doesn't expect to hit that more lucrative production rate until next year."

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

WHY CONTACT KAPLAN FOX?

Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP is a nationally recognized law firm focused on complex litigation, with offices in New York, Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New Jersey. Founded in 1956, the firm has spent more than 50 years prosecuting securities, antitrust, and consumer protection actions in federal and state courts nationwide, recovering more than $10 billion for clients and the classes it has represented.

Kaplan Fox is widely regarded as one of the nation's premier plaintiffs' securities litigation firms and has received recognition from Chambers and Partners, Benchmark Litigation, Super Lawyers, and Lawdragon. Serving as lead or co-lead counsel in many landmark cases, the firm has secured some of the largest recoveries in the history of securities litigation, including a $2.425 billion recovery on behalf of Bank of America shareholders in In re Bank of America—the largest recovery ever obtained for claims under Section 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act—$800 million recovered for the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System and other pension funds in ATRS v. Allianz Global Investors, and a $475 million settlement in In re Merrill Lynch.

For decades, Kaplan Fox has represented public pension funds, institutional investors, businesses, and individuals in high-stakes litigation. Through its successful advocacy and precedent-setting victories, the firm has helped shape important areas of securities and corporate law while advancing accountability and protecting investor interests.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

If you have any questions about this investigation, please contact:

Contacting or submitting information to Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP does not create an attorney-client relationship, nor an obligation on the part of Kaplan Fox to retain you as a client.

https://www.kaplanfox.com/case/the-boeing-company-ba-class-action/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/321654

Source: Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP

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Send us a message and a member of our TMX Newsfile team will contact you to discuss your needs.

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New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - October 29, 2026) - Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Bank of America Corporation ("Bank of America" or the "Company") (NYSE: BAC) on behalf of investors that purchased or otherwise acquired Bank of America common stock between August 1, 2025 and October 13, 2026 (the "Class Period").

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE CASE

If you are an investor in Bank of America and have suffered losses, you may CLICK HERE to contact us. You may also contact Kaplan Fox by emailing [email protected] or by calling (646) 315-9003.

DEADLINE REMINDER: If you are a member of the proposed Class, you may move the court no later than December 15, 2026 for an opportunity to be lead plaintiff for the purported class. If you have losses we encourage you to contact us to learn more about the lead plaintiff process. You need not seek to become a lead plaintiff in order to share in any possible recovery.

On October 13, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced coordinated enforcement actions against Bank of America's wholly owned subsidiary, Bank of America, N.A. ("BANA"), resulting in more than $1.2 billion in penalties and settlements for violations of Bank Secrecy Act ("BSA"), Anti-Money Laundering ("AML") and applicable economic sanctions laws due to longstanding and systemic compliance deficiencies. In its order, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, states that BANA admits that it willfully violated the BSA and missed or delayed detecting and reporting more than $5 billion in suspicious activity.

Then, on October 14, 2026, Bank of America reported third quarter 2026 results showing that the $1.2 billion regulatory settlement charge reduced diluted earnings per share by $0.17. Following the enforcement announcements and the Company's disclosure of their impact on its third-quarter earnings, the complaint alleges Bank of America's stock price fell to an intraday low of $49.26 on October 14, 2026, before closing at $51.39, down 4.8% from the previous day's closing price of $53.96.

The complaint alleges, among other things, that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that systemic weaknesses in BANA's BSA/AML program caused it to fail to properly monitor trillions of dollars in transactions and to miss, delay, or file inaccurate or incomplete suspicious activity reports involving billions of dollars in suspicious activity.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

WHY CONTACT KAPLAN FOX?

Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP is a nationally recognized law firm focused on complex litigation, with offices in New York, Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New Jersey. Founded in 1956, the firm has spent more than 50 years prosecuting securities, antitrust, and consumer protection actions in federal and state courts nationwide, recovering more than $10 billion for clients and the classes it has represented.

Kaplan Fox is widely regarded as one of the nation's premier plaintiffs' securities litigation firms and has received recognition from Chambers and Partners, Benchmark Litigation, Super Lawyers, and Lawdragon. Serving as lead or co-lead counsel in many landmark cases, the firm has secured some of the largest recoveries in the history of securities litigation, including a $2.425 billion recovery on behalf of Bank of America shareholders in In re Bank of America—the largest recovery ever obtained for claims under Section 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act—$800 million recovered for the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System and other pension funds in ATRS v. Allianz Global Investors, and a $475 million settlement in In re Merrill Lynch.

For decades, Kaplan Fox has represented public pension funds, institutional investors, businesses, and individuals in high-stakes litigation. Through its successful advocacy and precedent-setting victories, the firm has helped shape important areas of securities and corporate law while advancing accountability and protecting investor interests.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

If you have any questions about this Notice, your rights, or your interests, please contact:

Contacting or submitting information to Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP does not create an attorney-client relationship, nor an obligation on the part of Kaplan Fox to retain you as a client.

https://www.kaplanfox.com/case/bank-of-america-bac-class-action/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/321657

Source: Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP

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, /PRNewswire/ -- The DJS Law Group reminds investors of a class action lawsuit against Bank of America Corporation ("Bank of America" or "the Company") (NYSE: BAC) for violations of §§10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shareholders who purchased shares of BAC during the class period listed are encouraged to contact the firm regarding possible lead plaintiff appointments. Appointment as lead plaintiff is not required to partake in any recovery.

CLASS PERIOD: August 1, 2025 to October 13, 2026

DEADLINE: December 15, 2026

CASE DETAILS: According to the Complaint, the Company made false and misleading statements to the market. Bank of America's Bank of America, N.A. ("BANA") subsidiary failed to maintain an adequate Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering ("BSA/AML") program. The Company's failures resulted in billions of dollars in suspicious transactions to be missed or poorly reported. Based on these facts, Bank of America's public statements were false and materially misleading throughout the class period.

If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, contact us to participate.

WHY DJS LAW GROUP? DJS Law Group's primary focus is to enhance investor return through balanced counseling and aggressive advocacy. We specialize in securities class actions, corporate governance litigation, and domestic/international M&A appraisals. Our clients are some of the largest and most sophisticated hedge funds and alternative asset managers in the world. The litigation claims of our clients are extraordinarily valuable assets that demand respect, focus, and results.

Join the case to recover your losses.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics.

CONTACT:
David J. Schwartz
DJS Law Group
274 White Plains Road, Suite 1
Eastchester, NY 10709
Phone: 914-206-9742
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE DJS Law Group LLP

Walmart (WMT - Free Report) ended the recent trading session at $121.25, demonstrating a +2.09% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.31%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.25%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.38%.

Coming into today, shares of the world's largest retailer had gained 14.29% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector gained 3.86%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.87%.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Walmart in its upcoming release. The company plans to announce its earnings on November 19, 2026. In that report, analysts expect Walmart to post earnings of $0.64 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 3.23%. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $186.46 billion, indicating a 3.88% upward movement from the same quarter last year.

Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $2.88 per share and revenue of $751.5 billion. These totals would mark changes of +9.09% and +5.38%, respectively, from last year.

Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Walmart. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 0.11% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Walmart is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

From a valuation perspective, Walmart is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 41.31. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 13.85, which means Walmart is trading at a premium to the group.

Meanwhile, WMT's PEG ratio is currently 4.29. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. The Retail - Supermarkets was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.87 at yesterday's closing price.

The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 229, which puts it in the bottom 7% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding trading sessions.

General Motors will pay $220 million to 36 states to settle allegations that it illegally sold private driving behavior and location information to data brokers.

As part of the settlement, GM must get drivers’ express consent before it collects or shares their driving and location data — terms that are in line with separate agreements it previously reached with California and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This settlement does contain a new requirement that GM must have a third party assess the automaker’s compliance with the privacy program it has put in place.

The agreement announced Thursday settles a lawsuit brought by a coalition of attorneys general from 36 states that alleged GM had sold the information to data brokers, which in turn then sold it to insurance providers.

“This agreement addresses Smart Driver, a product we ended in 2024, and reinforces steps we’ve taken to strengthen our privacy practices,” GM said in an emailed statement. “Safer, more helpful and personalized experiences are enabled by connected vehicle data, and GM is committed to being clear about what information is used, how it’s protected, and the choices customers have about what they share.” 

The settlement comes more than two years after a New York Times report showed how GM and OnStar collected, used, and sold drivers’ precise geolocation data and driving behavior to third parties, including data brokers LexisNexis and Verisk. The data was collected through GM’s Smart Driver program, a free feature contained within its connected car apps that tracked and rated driving behaviors and seat belt use. Data brokers sold this information to insurance providers, which could affect customers’ rates, the NYT reported at the time.

GM discontinued Smart Driver in 2024, but that didn’t stop legal action. In January, the FTC finalized an order that bans GM and its OnStar telematics service from sharing certain consumer data. The FTC settlement, as well as the multistate one announced Thursday, also requires GM to be more transparent with its consumers and receive their explicit consent for certain collection.

The company now says it is focused on protecting the privacy of its customers and will no longer sell vehicle information that can be linked to an individual, their vehicle location, or how they drive. However, GM may still disclose anonymized data not tied to an individual with certain partners. GM has also updated the language in its privacy policy and created a consumer-facing Privacy Center.

The settlement and mandated changes to how GM handles customer driving data come as more sensor-laden vehicles equipped with computing power enter the market. Automakers have made large bets on software-centric vehicles that drivers and passengers can interact with and connect with other digital apps such as their calendar, messages, and email.

For instance, GM is adding a personal AI assistant to OnStar, its 30-year-old safety and roadside assistance service. Cameras on the vehicle will be connected to the software to offer live views as well as crash and safety recordings. Users will also be able to use voice to control certain functions on the vehicle, including climate, and ask questions about any specific vehicle feature.

The automaker emphasized its privacy protections when it announced the new assistant during its GM Forward event in October. The company said customers will have the ability to decide what data is shared and that the recordings have time limits and are encrypted. GM said it and OnStar cannot access Connected Camera recordings. Customers will also be able to manage permissions. However, customers who opt not to share their data will likely have limited access to certain features, according to GM.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive.

You can contact or verify outreach from Kirsten by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at kkorosec.07 on Signal.

Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ:SBUX) reported financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 after the market close on Thursday. Here’s a rundown of the report.

Starbucks stock is seeing increased attention. What’s pushing SBUX stock? Starbucks Q4 HighlightsStarbucks reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $9.14 billion, missing analyst estimates of $9.23 billion. The coffee giant posted adjusted earnings of 80 cents per share for the quarter, beating estimates of 72 cents per share, according to Benzinga Pro.

Consolidated net revenue was down 4% on a year-over-year basis as global comparable store sales climbed 7.2%, driven by a 5.2% increase in average ticket and a 1.8% increase in comparable transactions. Comparable store sales were up 7.9% in North America and increased 0.9% internationally.

“We had a terrific quarter and a great year driven by our focus on the fundamentals and what has always set Starbucks apart: exceptional coffee, a moment of connection and a world-class customer experience,” said Brian Niccol, chairman and CEO of Starbucks.

“This gives me confidence our performance is durable. Back to Starbucks started as our turnaround plan. Now, it’s our growth plan.”

Starbucks opened 303 net new stores in the quarter and ended the period with 41,607 total locations. The company said it had approximately $3.68 billion in cash and cash equivalents at quarter’s end.

Starbucks expects consolidated net revenues to decline by approximately 1% in fiscal 2027. The company also guided for U.S. comparable sales growth of approximately 4%. Starbucks sees fiscal 2027 adjusted earnings of $3.15 to $3.25 per share versus estimates of $3.14 per share.

Starbucks’ board declared a cash dividend of 63 cents per share, payable on Nov. 27 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 13.

Management is currently discussing the quarter on an earnings call that kicked off at 4:15 p.m. ET.

SBUX Price ActionStarbucks shares were down 0.11% in after-hours, trading at $105.50 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro.

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Starbucks (SBUX +2.24%) grew U.S. comparable coffeehouse sales 7.7% in its fiscal fourth quarter, but bigger checks did most of the work. Shares were flat in early after-hours trading. The profit recovery is real, but the traffic growth that made the turnaround convincing is fading, and management expects slower sales in 2027.

Key NumbersU.S. comparable coffeehouse sales: up 7.7% year over year.Global comparable transactions: up 1.8%, versus 3.2% for full fiscal 2026.Operating margin: 10.8% GAAP and 14% non-GAAP, up from 2.9% and 9.4%.Fiscal 2027 guidance: non-GAAP EPS of $3.15 to $3.25, versus $2.72 in fiscal 2026.What It MeansSales growth now comes mostly from people spending more per visit. U.S. average ticket rose 5.2%, more than double the gain in visits, and the release credits mix, food add-ons, pricing, and delivery across North America. Those levers fade as the company laps them, while more visits are what compound over time.

SBUX Starbucks$105.51+$2.31 (+2.24%)

NASDAQ · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/29/26

Under GAAP, much of the margin jump came from smaller restructuring charges, and those charges keep coming. Starbucks closed about 250 more North American coffeehouses in September, and its 2027 outlook already sets aside more. Still, the core gain holds up. North American store operating costs fell 2.2 points as a share of company-operated revenue because sales outgrew them.

The 2027 guide trades growth for margin. Management expects North America comparable sales growth of about 4%, well below this year's pace. Earnings should still climb as margins widen, though an extra week pads the total.

What to Watch NextWatch whether U.S. transactions speed up again next quarter. If visits stay soft while ticket does the lifting, even the 4% comp target could look stretched.

David Kretzmann has positions in Starbucks. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Starbucks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The coffee chain beat expectations on a key sales metric, but its stock was still moving lower.

Starbucks forecast annual profit above expectations, signaling that cost cuts and operational changes under CEO Brian Niccol’s two-year turnaround efforts are taking root.

Niccol repeatedly told investors on the earnings call that his “Back to Starbucks” strategy is no longer a turnaround, but a plan for growth.

The company said it aims to deploy about $1 billion towards share repurchases.

CEO Brian Niccol repeatedly told investors on the earnings call that his “Back to Starbucks” strategy is no longer a turnaround, but a plan for growth. Bloomberg via Getty Images Niccol has spent the past two years simplifying menus, improving staffing levels, and reducing wait times as part of his “Back to Starbucks” turnaround, helping the coffee chain achieve stable sales growth, although investors have been increasingly focused on whether the company can restore profitability.

Starbucks has been addressing its costs through restructuring, including layoffs and store closures, aiming to offset the nearly $500 million in labor investments as part of the overhaul.

Niccol said the coming year will have a focus on tech and modernization, listing as examples an AI system to assist baristas in taking drive-through orders, as well as systems that could “recognize participating customers as they arrive, present personalized digital menus and make payment more effortless.”

The Seattle-based company forecast annual adjusted earnings per share of $3.15 to $3.25, compared with analysts’ expectation of $3.14 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Niccol said the coming year will have a focus on tech and modernization. Starbucks forecast annual profit above expectations. LightRocket via Getty Images The world’s largest coffee chain reported fourth-quarter global same-store sales growth of 7.2%, which surpassed analysts’ expectations of a 5.4% rise. Adjusted earnings per share came in at 80 cents, above the 72-cent estimate.

Starbucks closed its deal with Boyu Capital to ​sell control of its Chinese operations earlier this year, valuing the business at $4 billion, intending to jump-start growth in the region, the hit from which pushed its annual revenue forecast to a 1% decline, compared with expectations of a 1.4% rise.

The world’s largest coffee chain reported fourth-quarter global same-store sales growth of 7.2%, which surpassed analysts’ expectations of a 5.4% rise. NurPhoto via Getty Images Shares of the company were down about 2% in extended trading.

Michael Gunther, an analyst at Consumer Edge, said he was encouraged by the sales growth figures, and that Starbucks has benefited from consumer demand for affordable indulgences. But he said the chain is losing younger customers to competitors like 7 Brew.

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“The guidance was weak, but perhaps they’re trying to set low expectations,” said Brian Jacobsen, an analyst with Annex Wealth Management, adding that he believes the company has momentum.

Earlier this month, the coffee chain quashed talk of a deal to acquire Chipotle Mexican Grill following reports of a potential deal, which could’ve been the largest ever involving restaurants and would have reunited Niccol with the burrito chain he led for six years.

Niccol said progress had been made in his efforts to transform Starbucks’ supply chain – whose tangles have caused product shortages over the years, Reuters reported in February. Niccol said the company is testing new ways to forecast demand for products, and also that daily deliveries are reaching close to 90% of North American stores.

$18.22+$2.16 (+13.45%)

NYSE · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/29/26

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH +13.45%), a global cruise operator with Norwegian, Oceania, and Regent brands, closed at $18.22, up 13.45%. Pre-market earnings beat estimates, and a raised full-year outlook drove the gain. Investors are watching booking trends and pricing next.
Trading volume reached 63.0 million shares, coming in about 241% above its three-month average of 18.5 million shares. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings IPO'd in 2013 and has fallen 27% since going public.

How the markets moved todayThe S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.30%) closed at 7,720, down 0.31%, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC -1.38%) closed at 26,185, down 1.38%. Within leisure travel services, global cruise line operator Royal Caribbean Cruises closed at $310.54, up 4.10%, and Carnival closed at $28.84, up 2.78%, after stronger cruise demand and higher guidance kept the group in focus.

What this means for investorsNorwegian Cruise Line Holdings beat estimates and raised guidance in its Q3 report. Investors cheered the results, especially after the company said bookings remain below the "optimal range." That news came as the stock started the day near its 52-week low, helping spur today's rally.

The company has been managing high fuel prices and relatively slow bookings well, and has plans to attract new guests. It recently opened a new waterpark attraction on its private Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas, for example.

The company also has a new finance chief beginning in January. Its longtime CFO will step down and be replaced by the current chief strategy officer, Meghan Montana.

Investors are sensing a bottom in the stock, with shares still down more than 18% this year, even after today's surge.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) posted its third-quarter fiscal 2026 results after Thursday’s closing bell, beating expectations but issuing fourth-quarter guidance well-below estimates.

INTC stock is moving. Watch the price action here. Intel Q3 Details      Intel reported quarterly earnings of 52 cents per share, which beat the consensus estimate of 40 cents by 30%, per Benzinga Pro data. 

Quarterly revenue came in at $16.51 billion, which beat the Street estimate of $16.47 billion.

Intel’s guidance is moving the stock. The company expects fourth quarter adjusted EPS of 25 cents, versus the 43 cent analyst estimate, and revenue in a range of $15 billion to $16 billion, versus the $17.05 billion estimate.

“Our Q3 results demonstrate improving execution, meaningful progress expanding supply and continued advancement of our process technology,” said Lip-Bu Tan, Intel CEO.

“Despite near-term headwinds across the PC industry, demand for our CPUs remains robust, reinforcing our confidence in the long-term growth opportunities for our business. Our immediate priority is to unlock additional supply to meet extraordinary demand for our Xeon family, while strengthening our product portfolio and roadmap,” Tan said.

“We are moving with urgency and focus to capitalize on these opportunities to deliver sustainable growth and long-term shareholder value,” he added.

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INTC Stock Price: According to data from Benzinga Pro, Intel stock was down 16.53% to $76.85 in Thursday’s extended trading.  

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The chip maker projected adjusted for the fourth quarter of 25 cents a share, on revenue between $15 billion and $16 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of 45 cents a share on $17.29 billion of revenue.

An Intel logo and a computer motherboard appear in this illustration taken August 25, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

NEW YORK, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Chip stocks took another hit after Thursday's weak quarterly earnings report from Intel, which could make for interesting dynamics when trading reopens on Friday.

The semiconductor index

(.SOX), opens new tab sold off in post-close trading on ​Thursday after chipmaker Intel

(INTC.O), opens new tab blamed "near term headwinds across the PC industry," sending its shares tumbling 18% ‌in the after-hours session. That followed the SOX's 1.4% drop during the regular session due to a messy earnings report from big AI spender Alphabet

(GOOGL.O), opens new tab on Wednesday.

The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.

Intel said a factory explosion in Israel will cost it roughly $600 million in lost revenue over two quarters ​because it has been shut down for about two weeks. Intel's fall took other big chip stocks ​down in post-close trading as well.

"Overall semis weakness after hours is primarily a function ⁠of INTC guide and negative sentiment spillover," said Michael James, equity sales trader at Rosenblatt Securities.

Intel's problems in ​the PC sector, an area of technology that does not garner the same scrutiny on Wall Street as the ​AI buildout, does not seem to necessarily mean big problems for other chipmakers that operate more prominently in AI.

Nevertheless, investors in the less-active post-market trade chose to shoot first and ask questions later. AMD

(AMD.O), opens new tab dropped 4% and Broadcom

(AVGO.O), opens new tab fell 2%. Among the biggest losers ​in the volatile session were the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull ETF , which offers investors three times the daily ​performance of the SOX and was off 9%.

"The revenues missed due to lower PC demand and forward guidance also disappointed. As ‌Google learned ⁠today, earnings matter," said Kim Caughey Forrest, founder and chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners LLC. Google parent Alphabet dropped 13% on Thursday.

The SOX has been one of 2026's standout performers, rising more than 60% as shortages of chips and equipment needed for the AI buildout drive up prices and profits at firms ranging from giant ​Nvidia

(NVDA.O), opens new tab and memory chip firm ​Micron to Marvell Technology

(MRVL.O), opens new tab.

But ⁠the momentum of that trade has been tested over the past month by tightening financing terms. That has kept some expected IPOs on the sidelines and put some ​highly leveraged AI infrastructure firms under pressure. The SOX has declined 13% since hitting ​its recent high ⁠in October and is off 21% from its all-time high in June.

That said, pre- and after-market trading often exaggerates moves relative to those in the more liquid regular session, particularly for stocks affected by a rival's news.

"I think it ⁠should not ​have much of an effect on the market," said Caughey Forrest. "It ​sounds like it was a PC issue. AMD may be a target for selling tomorrow too. Intel does not have much to do with ​AI, which is why the market might ignore it."

Reporting by Sinead Carew, editing by Colin Barr and David Gaffen

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

SummaryIntel Corporation has rallied impressively but now faces valuation headwinds as Q3 results and forward guidance disappoint elevated expectations.Q3 delivered a top-line beat with $16.5B revenue and $0.52 adjusted EPS, but true GAAP net income fell 18% year-over-year, highlighting underlying profit pressures.Growth in data center and foundry segments was offset by ongoing weakness in client computing, with PC demand notably soft.Q4 guidance is materially below expectations, with $15–16B revenue and just $0.25 adjusted EPS, making INTC stock's current valuation unsustainable; reducing exposure is advised.Looking for a helping hand in the market? Members of BAD BEAT Investing get exclusive ideas and guidance to navigate any climate. Learn More » Iam Anupong/iStock via Getty Images

When it comes to Intel Corporation (INTC), did you expect anything less than another dramatic chapter in this story? Look, we were some of the lone bulls on this name when shares were pounding the

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Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) reported third-quarter financial results on Thursday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.

This transcript is brought to you by Benzinga APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ for a consultation.

Access the full call at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/wmusrcit/

SummaryIntel Corporation reported strong Q3 2026 results, exceeding guidance with revenue at $16.5 billion. Record growth in the Data Center and AI (DCAI) segment drove results despite a decline in Client Computing Group (CCG) due to memory shortages.

Strategic initiatives include expanding server supply, progressing on server product roadmaps with Granite Rapids and Clearwater Forest, and focusing on purpose-built silicon and advanced packaging.

The company completed a $23 billion equity offering to support future growth, with plans to increase capital expenditures significantly over the coming quarters.

Challenges remain with an industry-wide supply shortage, particularly in advanced substrates, and a temporary factory shutdown in Israel impacting Q4 10-nanometer server shipments.

Intel anticipates a weak PC market due to memory issues, with a long-term positive outlook as AI applications grow. The company expects DCAI to continue its strong performance with 30% unit growth in 2027.

Management is optimistic about Intel’s position in the AI infrastructure buildout, emphasizing CPU efficiency, and plans to invest in future technologies including quantum computing.

Guidance for Q4 2026 includes expected revenue of $15-16 billion, gross margin at 38% and EPS at $0.25, impacted by the Israel factory incident.

Full TranscriptOPERATOR

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Intel Corporation’s third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker’s presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during this session, you’ll need to press star 11 on your telephone. If your question has been answered and you’d like to remove yourself from the queue, simply press star 11 again. As a reminder, today’s program is being recorded.

And now I’d like to introduce your host for today’s program, Mr. John Pitzer, Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Jonathan. And good afternoon to everyone joining us today. By now you should have received a copy of the Q3 earnings release and presentation. Both are available on our investor relations website, intc.com. For those joining us online today, the presentation is also available in our webcast window. I’m joined today by our CEO Lip Bu Tan and our CFO Dave Zinsner. Lip Bu will open with comments on third quarter results and progress on our strategic priorities.

Dave will then discuss overall financial results, including fourth quarter guidance, before we transition to answer your questions. Before we begin, please note that today’s presentation does contain forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. As such, they are subject to various risks and uncertainties. It also contains references to non-GAAP financial measures that we believe provide useful information to our investors.

Our earnings release, most recent annual report on Form 10-K, and other filings with the SEC provide more information on specific risk factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from our expectations. They also provide additional information on our non-GAAP financial measures, including reconciliation, where appropriate, to our corresponding GAAP financial measures. With that, let me turn it over to Lip Bu.

Lip Bu Tan (Chief Executive Officer)

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. The demand environment in Q3 was more balanced than previous quarters. Strong momentum in DCAI drove upside and enabled the strongest revenue growth for the segment in 15 years. This was partially offset by weakness in CCG, driven by the industry-wide impacts from higher memory prices and limited IT budgets. The industry continues to navigate one of the most significant supply shortages in history, driven by the unprecedented demand for superintelligence.

Against this backdrop, I am pleased by the progress we made growing our server supply in Q3. I am mindful about the ongoing challenges we face in future quarters to keep pace with the server demand. The successful completion of our equity offering in August provided us with the necessary financial resources to capture the growth ahead. I am very pleased to add new sovereign funds and long-term growth investors in addition to our existing shareholders.

We are deploying this capital quickly and prudently. We expect capex and purchase commitments for key components to increase significantly over the next several quarters. I want to thank our substrate, memory, foundry, and equipment suppliers for their strong partnership and collaborations as we work together to expand supply and support growing demand. Turning to business units, first DCAI. Within our server business, we are making steady progress on our roadmap. Granite Rapids on Intel 3 has become one of the fastest-ramping server products. Clearwater Forest, our first Intel 18A server product, is shipping for revenue, and demand for 2027 is significant, especially in CPU-dense, rack-scale infrastructure. Diamond Rapids, our first Intel 18A server product, is sampling and on track to ramp in 2027, with strong interest for inference and agentic workloads.

We were pleased to recently announce an agreement with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to deploy our latest-generation CPUs to support their AI build-out. I also want to acknowledge headwinds limiting our progress to meet this extremely high AI-driven demand. First, Intel 3 yield and cycle time continue to improve, but I am demanding significant execution from the team. Second, even as our Intel 3 wafer output ramps quickly, an industry-wide shortage of advanced organic substrates for our EMIB packaging is also impacting our ability to scale output. Finally, early this month an unfortunate and tragic accident led to an extended shutdown in our Israel factory.

While the teams have worked quickly to address the situation, it will impact our Q4 10-nanometer server shipments. Purpose-built silicon remains our fastest growing business segment, tripling over the last three years and poised to triple again over the next few years. We see further growth opportunity with both existing and new potential customers, including AI labs, and expanding our IP portfolio to meet the needs of a wider array of customers. Lastly, we recently unveiled our Creston Island inference-optimized GPU. Early feedback is encouraging; performance is tracking well.

This is a new market for us and it will take time to scale, but customer engagements are progressing towards firm commitments. Turning to our client business, in recent weeks our customers began signaling a PC slowdown based on memory prices and availability. Year to date, system endpoint prices have increased significantly, placing additional pressure on already limited IT budgets. The pace of the PC correction has accelerated over the last two months as our OEM partners are aggressively managing inventory to match the softer sell-through. We expect the current environment to persist until memory availability and prices begin to normalize.

While the next few quarters will be challenging for the PC market, our roadmap continues to strengthen and our long-term outlook remains positive. We have successfully ramped Panther Lake on Intel 18A, and demand for Wildcat Lake is outstripping supply. Nova Lake, our first Intel 18AP client products, is tracking ahead of schedule with design wins expected to be twice those of Panther Lake at launch. We look forward to sharing more at CES in January as the market normalizes. We expect this portfolio to drive meaningful share gains.

Intel Foundry execution continued to improve consistently during the quarter. Intel 3 and Intel 18A yields both increased again, with Intel 18A improving at a double-digit rate. Wafer output on both nodes exceeded expectations. Intel 18AP remains on track for launch by year end across our internal product portfolio, and external customer engagement continues to build. We are engaged with a couple of highly strategic customers, and I’m increasingly confident that our Intel 18AP will be an attractive node for external foundry customers.

Intel 14A also remains on track. In October, as committed, we released our industry-standard 0.9 PDK to select customers. It is our highest-quality 0.9 PDK, meeting industry-standard yield and performance criteria at release. As is standard practice in the foundry business, I have consistently maintained that we will not disclose customer details. That being said, I remain highly encouraged by the progress we are making with multiple potential customers on 14A and on advanced packaging.

We are pleased by the progress we are making with EMIB and EMIB T for our internal products. Both continue to see significant external customer traction as well. We continue to improve on execution, working with our supply chain to secure the capacity to meet the needs of our advanced packaging customers. We are also seeing robust progress in the readiness of HPI, which is an enabler of 3D chip stacking for our upcoming server products across our manufacturing network.

Additional capacity continues to come online. Intel 3 tool installation is progressing well in Ireland, as is the ramp of 18A in both Oregon and Arizona, including Fab 62, our second high-volume 18A fab. In New Mexico and Malaysia, we are adding capacity to support strong customer ramps for advanced packaging next year. In New Albany, Ohio, the team recently achieved an important construction milestone with installation of the first major structural truss, and we continue to evaluate unique and highly differentiated opportunities to accelerate our Ohio buildout, and I hope to share more on this in the near future.

Looking to the future, I have always emphasized that rebuilding Intel is going to be a multi-year journey, and I remain firmly committed to making it happen. We are only one and a half years into this journey. We have made enormous strides in these 18 months, including a dramatic resizing of our workforce, eliminating middle management and bureaucracy, streamlining our executive ranks, and establishing an almost entirely new leadership team. We have installed once again an engineering-centric culture, streamlined our product portfolio, and put in place a more competitive roadmap for Intel products and Intel Foundry.

We still have much more to do. The resurgence in demand for CPUs is a meaningful tailwind for us along our transformation journey. Increasingly, energy efficiency is becoming the most important metric for the AI infrastructure buildout. While GPUs are great at thinking tasks, deterministic CPUs are far more efficient at finding tasks. While GPU reasoning queries run as high as multiple watt-hours of energy, a single CPU query could use only a fraction of the energy. Applying even conservative estimates to the total number of digital agents and agents served per CPU, it is easy to anticipate a massive dollar and unit TAM for CPUs over the coming five years.

By our estimates, server CPU TAM, largely driven by agentic workloads, could increase as much as five times from where it is today, from $40 billion to more than $200 billion over five years. This makes the opportunity for Intel enormous. We are, of course, mindful of the fierce competition underway as nearly every fabless company races to meet this unprecedented demand with their own offerings. But Intel is uniquely positioned to benefit from this demand in three ways. First, as a custodian of x86, the most widely deployed ISA in the world, we are doubling down on x86 innovation and have an exciting roadmap of CPU innovations in the pipeline. In addition, for the first time, we are making fully modular, verified instances of our x86 CPUs, optimized for custom workloads, available to our customers.

Second, as one of the just three advanced-node semiconductor foundries in the world, and the only one domiciled in the United States, we are well positioned to support not only our own demand but also the demands of the wider fabless industry. We are also open to building any CPUs at scale for our customers, fully agnostic to the underlying ISA. Third, as modern computing platforms increasingly become complex systems in package, our leadership in advanced packaging offers a highly differentiated solution, especially to meet the requirements of the massive AI infrastructure buildout underway.

This is why I remain optimistic on the opportunities ahead for Intel, even as we have work to do. Lastly, while we remain focused on executing against our near-term priorities, we cannot lose sight of what comes next. Intel has a deep portfolio of technology and IP that positions us to drive the next wave of computing. We’ll continue to invest in breakthrough technologies, including silicon photonics, neuromorphic computing, advanced materials, and quantum computing, that we believe can unlock important new opportunities over time. This week we announced our intent to acquire ClassIQ, an Israel-based quantum software provider, moving our quantum efforts from foundational research towards commercialization.

ClassIQ’s overarching hardware-agnostic software platform layer provides a gateway for more consumers to explore quantum computing, and it is a wonderful complement to our already strong internal quantum hardware and software stacks and enables us to further extend our compute platform offerings to include QPUs in addition to CPUs, GPUs, and ASICs. Post acquisition, Intel will become a full-stack, revenue-generating quantum computing company. In summary, while we did well in Q3, there’s clearly more work to do. I’m disappointed that we were not able to meet strong customer demand in this quarter. We face near-term challenges, including manufacturing supply shortages, the unprecedented memory crunch, and the resulting softness in PC demand, but I remain confident in our path forward.

Opportunity in front of us. I want to thank our employees, partners, and suppliers for their tireless effort in this quarter. With that, I will turn the call over to Dave for additional details.

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

Thank you, Lipu. We delivered a strong quarter, exceeding our guidance for revenue, gross margin, and earnings per share. This marks the eighth consecutive quarter of exceeding our financial expectations. Our Q3 results reinforce the essential role our server CPUs play in the buildout of superintelligence or AI infrastructure. Results also demonstrate our improving execution as we grow supply to capture the strong demand for AI compute. Third-quarter revenue was $16.5 billion, led by record year-over-year growth in DCAI.

Strong execution across our factory network and external supply chain drove better-than-expected server CPU output. This strength was partially offset by weakness in Client, where industry-wide PC consumption is being impacted by memory shortages and limited IT budgets. Third-quarter non-GAAP gross margin was 44.1%, approximately 200 basis points higher than Q2 and our guidance. The sequential improvement was driven by improved costs on Intel 3 and Intel 18A and a more favorable product mix.

Third-quarter non-GAAP EPS was $0.52 compared with our guidance of $0.38. The upside was driven by higher revenue, stronger gross margin, and disciplined spending, which together produced better-than-expected operating leverage. Operating cash flow was $5.1 billion. We ended the quarter with approximately $54 billion in cash and short-term investments, in addition to $15 billion of borrowing capacity under our new extended revolvers, up from $10 billion previously.

In early August, we further strengthened our balance sheet through a $23 billion equity offering. The incremental interest income associated with the offering contributed approximately $0.01 to Q3 EPS. That was not contemplated in our original guidance. Now moving to segment results. DCAI revenue was $7.3 billion, up 17% sequentially and nearly 80% year over year. Revenue was meaningfully ahead of our expectations as our factory network and external suppliers supported higher output. The work our teams have done to increase supply is having a tangible impact. Based on our current outlook, DCAI revenue is on track to finish 2026 nearly $10 billion above expectations entering the year. Q3 growth was broad based across hyperscale, enterprise, and neo-cloud customers.

We also continued to see strong momentum in purpose-built silicon, with revenue increasing more than 50% sequentially and more than doubling year over year. Despite our progress to increase capacity, demand for DCAI products continues to meaningfully exceed available supply. DCAI operating profit was $3 billion, representing 42% of revenue and increasing approximately $600 million sequentially. The improvement was driven by higher revenue and lower operating expenses.

Granite Rapids is now the largest product family in our server portfolio as we continue to increase output from our Ireland facility. Earlier this month at the Open Compute Project Global Summit, we demonstrated select Clearwater Forest configurations that scale beyond 46,000 cores per rack at approximately 133 kilowatts of total rack power, delivering best-in-class performance per watt. We also introduced the Intel GPU D series, formerly code-named Crescent Island, which is designed to improve the economics of sustained, memory-intensive AI inference.

Customer interest in both product families is running ahead of our initial expectations. CCPG revenue was $8.1 billion, down 9% sequentially and below our expectations. We previously noted that memory shortages could pressure the second-half PC TAM. That pressure intensified during Q3, particularly late in the quarter, and resulted in a meaningful adjustment in customer purchasing patterns. Despite the near-term weakness, we saw several positive developments. Our AI PC revenue grew 35% year over year even as total CCPG revenue declined 5%.

Our client products on Intel 18A continue to ramp well. Wildcat Lake, our cost-optimized Intel 18A client CPU, increased units by approximately 70% sequentially and is sold out. Lastly, our Edge business was more resilient, supported by continued momentum in Edge and physical AI design wins. Turning to Intel Foundry, Intel Foundry revenue was $6.7 billion, up 16% sequentially, driven by better-than-expected growth on Intel Intel 3 and Intel 18A external foundry revenue was $411 million, an increase of $118 million sequentially, primarily due to a non-recurring customer program. Intel Foundry reported an operating loss of $1.9 billion, an improvement of $236 million sequentially. Even as we continue to invest aggressively to prepare Intel 14A for risk production next year, higher yields, better cycle times, and increased factory utilization continue to reduce wafer costs.

Intel 3 costs improved approximately 15% from Q1 levels, while volumes increased in the mid-teens. Sequentially, Intel 18A costs have declined approximately 40% since Q1, reflecting continued yield and cycle time improvements. Intel 18A yields continue their upward trajectory to industry-standard levels and ahead of our internal projections. Since Q1, Intel 18A client CPUs have grown from less than 5% of revenue to now nearly one third of client CPU revenue.

These results represent meaningful progress, although we still have considerable work ahead of us to deliver a sustainably profitable foundry business. Now turning to outlook, demand signals from our data center customers continue to strengthen. We expect the industry to remain supply constrained throughout 2027 and into 2028. As Lip Bu discussed, the adoption of agentic AI is broadening the role of CPU. Compute AI workloads are moving beyond prompt-based responses toward multi-step reasoning, orchestration, and autonomous persistent action. Our CPUs play a central role in enabling these workloads.

As a result, we continue to see strong demand for our DCAI products. We now expect industry server CPU units to grow more than 30% in both 2026 and in 2027. Growth would be higher in both years if additional industry supply were available. At the same time, the PC market is weakening after remaining resilient during the first half of 2026. We expect the 2026 PC unit TAM to decline approximately 12% with second-half units down more than 20%. We do not expect a sustained recovery until memory availability improves and pricing begins to normalize. For 2027, we’re planning for the PC unit TAM to decline roughly 10%. We expect year-over-year declines to be more pronounced during the first half, with the potential for improvement in the second half.

Against an easier comparison, our longer-term view of the PC market remains unchanged. Traditional PCs will play an important role in enabling AI applications and driving strong returns on AI infrastructure spending. In addition, we’re just now seeing new agentic systems in the market. We also continue to see attractive longer-term opportunities in edge and physical AI as agentic applications spread across the economy. Taking these factors together, we’re guiding Q4 revenue to a range of $15 billion to $16 billion. At the midpoint of $15.5 billion, we expect a gross margin of 38%, a tax rate of 11%, and EPS of $0.25, all on a non-GAAP basis.

Our guidance includes an impact of roughly $300 million to revenue and 200 basis points to gross margin, based on our early assessment of the incident at Fab 28. By segment, we expect DCAI revenue to grow mid-teens percent sequentially with purpose-built silicon growing faster than DCAI overall. Please note, almost all of the $300 million impact from Fab 28 is related to 10-nanometer server products. We expect CCBG revenue to decline greater than 20% sequentially as customers move quickly to reduce weeks of inventory and align purchases with their expectations for 2027 consumption. The sequential decline in Q4 gross margin primarily reflects lower overall revenue against our fixed cost base as we adjust client wafer starts to current demand conditions.

In addition, revenue mix, especially the strong growth expected in purpose-built silicon, is creating difficult quarter-on-quarter compares. These headwinds will be partially offset by continued yield and cost improvements on Intel 3 and 18A. We expect non-GAAP operating expenses of approximately $4.4 billion in Q4 and approximately $16.3 billion for the full year. We expect non-controlling interest, or NCI, to be approximately $250 million in Q4 and we currently expect NCI of approximately $1.1 billion in both 2027 and 2028.

Lastly, we expect Q4 fully diluted share count of 5.44 billion, representing a full quarter of shares issued for our August equity offering. Moving to CapEx, our 2026 gross capital expenditures remains on track to be $20 billion and we expect 2027 gross capital spending to be up strongly. We have made good progress securing the equipment required to support our growth plans, with firm purchase orders to equipment suppliers increasing nearly 40% sequentially. We’re also accelerating clean room buildouts, including Fab 62 in Arizona, and exploring opportunities to accelerate in Ohio. Despite this increase in capital spending and working capital, we remain committed to deleveraging in 2027.

We will remain disciplined as we invest and we will not spend a dollar of capital unless we have confidence in the health of our products and process technologies and clear evidence of customer demand. Our confidence in all three is improving. In closing, I want to offer a few words outlining the opportunity we see ahead. Our core server CPU market is growing faster than ever, and edge and physical AI represent meaningful incremental opportunities for client-class CPUs even as we navigate the current market conditions. Importantly, as we improve our product execution and roadmap, we have opportunities to regain share and grow even faster than our underlying markets. Beyond our core x86 franchise, we are investing in three large opportunities where we have meaningful momentum but relatively modest revenue today: purpose-built silicon, advanced packaging, and external wafer foundry.

Each represents tens of billions of dollars of new markets where our technology, manufacturing assets, and customer relationships provide us a differentiated opportunity to participate. Taken together, we have line of sight to long-term double-digit revenue growth. With meaningful leverage and improving margins, we have significant work ahead of us. However, the combination of stronger markets and the cultural changes set into motion by Lip Bu to improve execution, transparency, and discipline gives us increasing confidence in Intel’s long-term earnings power and free cash flow growth — a solid foundation for building sustainable shareholder value. With that, I’ll turn it over to John to begin the Q&A.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Dave. As a reminder, please ask one question and a brief follow-up in order to allow us to accommodate as many callers as possible. With that, Jonathan, can we take the first question?

OPERATOR

Certainly. And our first question comes from the line of Timothy A. Curry from UBS. Your question, please.

Timothy A. Curry (Analyst at UBS)

Thanks a lot, Dave. I’m wondering, with all the puts and takes and what’s going on in PC, I’m wondering if you can give us maybe some, you know, guardrails. Maybe you could say it, you know, next year. I mean it seems like DCAI could grow $10 to $15 billion year over year, but PC I’m guessing is maybe down a touch. So can you just maybe give us guardrails for the year and sort of how to think about the shape of the year?

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, thanks, Tim. Yeah, I’m not obviously going to guide next year, but maybe I’ll give you some qualitative information. I would say at a high level we see next year as a growth year. We feel like the momentum that we saw in Data Center this quarter — and taking away the impact from Israel, that momentum would have continued into the fourth quarter — we see that continuing next year. The only little nuance is the first half of the year; we are still a bit constrained.

You know, we talked about putting 40% more capacity in substrates, but a lot of that doesn’t hit us until the back half of the year. In addition, we are still constrained on Intel 3, and we’re going to work towards moving, as Lip Bu said, some of our supply into Oregon, but it’s going to take a while before that comes out of the fab and gets into products. But we’re very optimistic and enthusiastic about the opportunities for us next year in terms of growth on the Data Center business.

In addition, we talked about within DCAI, we also have purpose-built silicon. That business has been growing at a 3x rate over the last three years. We see that growing at a 3x rate in the next three years. And so we’re really bullish about that throughout 2027. Obviously the client is going to be the most difficult to call. As I talked about, we see TAM declining in ’26 by about 12% on a unit basis. We think that’s going to be about 10% next year on a unit basis.

So that will be one dynamic. Then there’s going to be this kind of inventory correction. We’re in the throes of that right now. We felt a little bit of it in the third quarter; we’re going to feel a lot of it in the fourth quarter. We think it extends at least out into the first quarter. After that, I think you’ll start to see the inventory correction part of this start to wane and we’ll be back into more of what’s going to go on on the TAM side, which, as I said, we’re thinking about 10% down.

The one added piece of this is, you know, we come into next year with Nova Lake as our product offering, and we think this is the best set of products we’ve had in a very long time. We think it covers the gamut of what’s required to participate in client. We’re very excited about it. We think, you know, next year and in the future years, we’re in a kind of a market-share-gain type of environment for clients. So, you know, obviously unfortunate that we’ve run into this challenge on the memory side and its impact on client.

But we are very enthusiastic about the product side. And I just — you didn’t ask this question, but I’ll just extend it out beyond this year — we do think that the PC is going to go through a renaissance despite this. And we think that as AI workloads start to shift around, there’s going to be a lot of workload required in the client space, either as a PC or as some kind of agentic box. And so we do see this market as being pretty interesting. It’s got to obviously get through this bit of challenge that we have, but longer term feel really good about the market.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

Tim, do you have a quick follow-up question?

Timothy A. Curry (Analyst at UBS)

I do, yeah. So Dave, you did say that CapEx is going to be up a lot next year. I think a lot of us are thinking kind of like $30 billion. But I guess the real question is, are you committed to generating free cash flow next year, or do you think because of the CapEx burden that that’ll be hard? Thanks.

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, that’s a good question. Yeah, we haven’t exactly locked into the number. We don’t do that until we get towards the end of this year. But we have a directional understanding of what’s likely to happen, and we have been putting POs in place with equipment vendors given the lead time, so we have some sense of what’s going to happen. I think next year is an investment year for us. As we look at the year, probably not a dynamic where we’re going to have positive free cash flow next year, but it’s because we see this as a tremendous opportunity to invest into the growth.

One thing that we have seen is you make the right investments, you ramp the node in the right way, you see profitability and you see return on invested capital. We talked about this as we were doing The equity offering at the beginning of August that we think we should be getting at least 20% ROI on all of these nodes as we invest in them. But this, you know, next year is going to be one of those years where there’s a couple of things going on at the same time. We’re ramping 18A, we’re ramping Intel 3 to some extent and we’re making the appropriate investments to position 14A to begin production in 28. That’s a lot of investment all, you know, kind of hitting us in one year.

So I don’t think that, you know, this will be a year in which we see positive cash flow. And by the way, that is why we raised the money that we did at the beginning of August was to get ourselves positioned to do this. Longer term though, these businesses generate lots of cash flow and if you look at Intel 7 today, kind of 10 nanometer 7, that’s already a profitable node to us. Intel 3 is going to be profitable next year for us. So we know we can make these businesses profitable, we know we can generate good cash flow from them, we know we can get 20% return. We just got to get through what is basically a knothole here in 27 to go realize that.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

Thanks, Tim. Jonathan, can we have the next question please?

OPERATOR

Certainly. Our next question comes from the line of Ben Reitzes from Melius Research, your question please.

Ben Reitzes (Analyst at Melius Research)

Yeah, thanks a lot, guys. I wanted to ask about some of the issues that you noted for 4Q and that may linger into 1Q and see if you can kind of size them versus prior expectations and then when they get better. You cited execution, obviously the Israel situation, which is 300, wondering what that’s going to be in the quarters after that and when that is solved—and sorry that that happened, by the way—and then the client. And in the context that the guide is about 1.8 below the Street, maybe you can kind of go through those three things, how big they are to the cut of 1.8 and when they get better, that would be great.

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

Thanks a lot. Yeah, what was the—so Israel, the client, what was the third one? Yeah, okay.

Ben Reitzes (Analyst at Melius Research)

Just relative to the guide and Street? Yeah, the execution. Dave, there was an extra comment around execution and Lip Bu made some comments. I’m wondering how big that was in terms of the guidance cut.

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

Okay, well, on Israel, you know, we’ve been shut down for about two weeks. We feel like we’re going to be starting up production here by the end of this week. While we’re doing that, we’re trying to assess all the wafers that are in the line and what’s usable and what’s not usable from those materials. So, you know, this is somewhat of an early assessment, both really of 4Q and 1Q. But, you know, I think the current thinking is that, you know, we’ll have about a $300 million impact to the fourth quarter that’s likely to be similar in the first quarter.

You know, we think most of the write-offs of wafers or scrapping of wafers is likely to all kind of happen in the fourth quarter. You know, that’s kind of what’s driving the 200 basis. I wouldn’t expect to see additional scrapping going on in the first quarter, but just keep in mind it’s early. We’re going through all of that as we speak and we’ll of course update you as we go along. I think on the client side, obviously it’s going to kind of reset to this level and we’re going to have, I think usually you have a very similar inventory correction quarter to quarter, so I would expect it to generally be similar, other than you will have a seasonality effect in Q1 on client as well. So the likelihood is that whatever the level that we’re talking about for the fourth quarter, we’ll see somewhat of a seasonal decline next quarter.

Beyond that, I think from an execution perspective, I have to think about some of the negative things, but a lot of the execution has been really positive. I mean, Lip Bu and the team have done a very good job driving Intel 3 yields, driving 18A yields, and working the substrate vendors. Lip Bu was in Japan talking to many of the substrate vendors to make sure that we were getting allocated the appropriate supply. So I think we’re as positioned, or as well positioned, as anyone out there in terms of delivering supply. It’s tight, it’s going to be tight this next quarter. It’s going to be tight into the first half. But I think we positioned ourselves well that beyond that we should start to see some pretty healthy growth in the data center business.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

Ben, do you have a quick follow up?

Ben Reitzes (Analyst at Melius Research)

Yeah. Then just with regard to the server velocity, there’s shortages and whatnot, but do you have an idea for when you think you can ramp and grow in line with the market that’s going on—that 200 bill plus? Is that more second half next year based on your commentary? Thanks.

Lip Bu Tan (Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, good question. I think, Ben, first of all, I think the server—the biggest revenue for us is the Granite Rapids that’s on the Intel 3. Clearly we are continuing to drive efficiency in terms of yield. And then secondly we also try to expand the capacity and I think Dave mentioned about Oregon. We are planning to have that Intel 3 in the second half of next year to be in production so that we can supply some of the demand from the customer. And so I think overall, I think it would be good to address the Intel 3.

And then clearly we have the Clearwater Forest coming up and then we are shipping in revenue that’s on 18A. We should have capacity for that. And then Diamond Rapids, that will be 2027, we have 18A P will be ready for that. And of course the Coral Rapid coming up in 2028, that will be on the 14A. So those I think will be in pretty good shape.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

Thanks, Ben. Jonathan, can we have the next question please?

OPERATOR

Certainly. Our next question comes from the line of Joseph Moore from Morgan Stanley. Your question please.

Joseph Moore (Analyst at Morgan Stanley)

Yeah, I mean along the same lines, does the PC weakness give the opportunity to reallocate wafers and sort of address some of this and accelerate that transition?

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

Answer? Yes. You know, what we’re taking offline to put Intel 3 into Oregon is 18A wafers which were generally going to build Panther Lake products. So, you know, we see the opportunity with some of that capacity freed up to go produce more data center wafers. Just keep in mind that we’re not only constrained on the wafer side, we’re also constrained on the substrate side. So it’s important we get the substrate piece of this ramped up to be able to meet the demand.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

Joe, do you have a follow up question?

Joseph Moore (Analyst at Morgan Stanley)

Yeah, I do. How do you see server market share next year? I think you talked about 30% unit growth. AMD is guided to 70% revenue growth. The ARM camp seems to be growing quite quickly. Just—I understand you’re constrained—but how do you sort of see market share playing out?

Lip Bu Tan (Chief Executive Officer)

Sure, I think that’s a good question. So clearly we have a roadmap. We like what we have in terms of Coral Rapid will be competitive to AMD and then next generating product, the TipTalk, will be ahead of the AMD on that. So I think stay tuned. We’ll continue to drive leadership. CPU is really our franchise. We are determined to drive success there and I think that’s a good opportunity for us to really drive that.

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

I’d say maybe one other addition is I really see market share next year being a function of supply and so the more we can improve our supply on a relative basis, the better we’ll do in terms of market share.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

Can we have the next question please, Jonathan?

OPERATOR

Certainly. Our next question comes from the line of Stacy Raskin from Bernstein Research. Your question please.

Stacy Raskin (Analyst at Bernstein Research)

Hi guys, thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to dig into gross margins a little bit. So I get that the 38% guidance I guess would have been 40 without the unfortunate situation in Israel. But as I’m looking into next year, how do I think about the overall drivers? I’ve got—clearly I have a client flush and maybe utilization issue, which is a negative. I’ve got depreciation probably going up from capex, which is a negative, and then maybe as 18A and 3 ramp, I get the yields are getting better but I guess you can tell us if the gross margins on those parts are still below 10, 7.

I wonder if that mix shift is a headwind, plus ASICs and packaging and everything. And maybe on the other side though, maybe mix towards servers is a positive, maybe pricing helps. I’m just trying to get a feeling of the gross margin evolution in this kind of environment given all of those puts and takes, because it just seems like there’s a lot of them. I’m hoping you can help with that a little bit.

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

That’s a good question, Stacy. There are definitely a lot of moving pieces. I think from a margin perspective, the Israel piece—it’s probably, on a margin basis, going to be really more of a Q4 event. I don’t expect a significant amount in Q1 in terms of scrapping. Usually if we can identify it, we’ll scrap it in the quarter we have. Xeon demand remains really strong and I think I mentioned Granite Rapids is now margin accretive for us. So growth in Granite Rapids is helpful to gross margins.

And we will also continue to be focused on both Intel 3 and 18A. Their structural cost is what we can focus on more—is yields, throughput, all of those. We did very well in Q3. We expect to do better in Q4 and the goal is to continue to drive that through the year. You’re right. On 18A, the loading isn’t going to be where we want it. We’re fixing a little bit of that with putting Intel 3 in Oregon. But nevertheless there will be a little bit of an underloading scenario for 18A that that’s going to be a little bit of a headwind.

The other headwind for us, which is I think a positive viewed the right way, is our purpose-built silicon business and it’s kind of in its early stages. Its margins are below the corporate average, but we see tremendous growth there. And Lip Bu and I have really decided to focus on driving the gross profit. And so we’re just going to grow the gross profit. That’ll grow the earnings. It may put a little pressure on the operating margin percentage through next year, but I think it will be goodness at the bottom line.

I think when you put all that together—and it’s so many puts and takes, it’s hard to quantify—I’d still lean towards the 40 to 60 fall-through. That’s probably what we’re shooting for. So if we have a growth year next year, we should see gross margin expansion, given that kind of rule of thumb. It may not work out every quarter that way, but I think when you look at it on a year-over-year basis, it’s going to be in that kind of range.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

Stacy, do you have a follow up question?

Stacy Raskin (Analyst at Bernstein Research)

I do, yeah. I guess I wanted to ask about PCs. So, I mean, Q3 was probably the worst Q3 I’ve seen for PCs in at least 20 years, maybe more, sequentially. So it does sound like customers probably built inventory in Q3, I guess. Can you confirm that? And then it sounds like that they’re flushing out a bunch. In Q4 I kind of get. And maybe even in Q1 it sounds like you think things get better in the second half, as I suppose, memory supply. What gives you confidence that memory supply is actually going to improve?

If you listen to the memory guys, they seem to be suggesting that it won’t.

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, let me be clear. Yeah, it’s a good question, Stacy. Let me be clear. You know, we think that, you know, you’re dead on that Q4, Q1 are going to be likely the two quarters in which there’s most of the inventory correction and, you know, that impacts us more than the TAM declines. So we will see that in the first—and call it Q4, Q1, maybe stretching a little bit into Q2. After that it does recover back to where, you know, theoretically, where, you know, billings to us are somewhat equivalent to consumption. So we get a little bit of a recovery from that.

But, you know, make no mistake, we are not optimistic about next year in terms of memory. You know, we think that it is going to impact the TAM. We think TAM will be down 10% on a units basis next year and then we’ll have to see in 28 whether things improve. But our expectation is that it does not improve in 27.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Stacy. Jonathan, can we have the next question please?

OPERATOR

Certainly. Our next question comes from the line of Vivek Arya from Bank of America Securities.

Vivek Arya (Analyst at Bank of America Securities)

Thanks for taking my question. For the first one, if I take your, I think, implied DC guidance for Q4, you know, that puts it at about eight and a half billion or so. And if I annualize that, that’s like mid-30s billion in terms of a conceptual target for next year. So I’m curious, is that a doable floor? Can you do better? Is there kind of ASP expansion, you know, just given demand is outstripping supply? Or are there other factors we should keep in mind as we think about how large your data center business could be in ’27?

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, I think that’s a good starting point. I think that’s the right way to think about it. What we would characterize is that the first half of ’27 is likely to be tighter in terms of wafers and substrates. But we’ve put a lot of work in place both in terms of, as I talked about, increasing our wafer output of Intel 3, improving yields as a freeway to get more product, and the investments we’ve made in the substrates with vendors unlock that capacity in the back half of the year.

So we do expect it to be a big growth year. I mean, keep in mind also that we roll our purpose silicon, our ASIC business, in under that business unit. So that’s part of what’s driving a lot of the growth in the fourth quarter, and again we expect that to continue in ’27.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

Vivek, do you have a follow-up?

Vivek Arya (Analyst at Bank of America Securities)

Yes, thank you. I was hoping to get an update on engagements with external customers in your foundry, both on the packaging side and then also, more importantly, Lip Bu, on the wafer processing side. Are you expecting external customers for 18A, or should we assume that all the engagements will be on 14A? And when do you think Intel gets the confidence to move them from sort of the evaluation to the tape-out or tangible revenue column? So we are all kind of set in terms of when we should start modeling external revenue for Intel over the next few years.

Thank you.

Lip Bu Tan (Chief Executive Officer)

Good, Vivek, thank you so much for the question. So I think clearly first question you have is about the packaging. Our EMIB team is making great progress. We have been very focused on capacity on the substrate, making sure that we can secure the capacity we need and also the yield profile for the capacity from substrate and material. Secondly, we focus on the yield, and we are improving substantially. And then thirdly is the cycle time. And so far, under the leadership of Seok-Hee Lee—he used to be CEO of SK Hynix, expert in process integration—he’s done a fabulous job, very dedicated. I think we get a lot of capacity in the next two years in terms of the substrate material, and we’re also improving the yield as the days go by. And then overall I think we’re going to have some—stay tuned. We’re going to have a couple of customers ready to announce next two quarters, and then so clearly we always want to wait for the customer; if they want to announce, we will respond to that.

And then secondly, on the 18A, we’re making great progress in volume production from Panther Lake and then clearly on the Wildcat Lake. And so I think those, I think internally we’ve been using the yield, we are quite happy with the performance, and right now we also have inbound interest from the external customer and we are intensively working with them, and they are very pleased with the yield. And right now we are focused on the die size, make sure that we can deliver to them, and also make sure that IP ready for that.

So I think 18A, stay tuned. We have some good progress on that. On the 14A, we made tremendous progress. I think we announced the 0.9 PDK we already released to our select customers. They already responded very actively, working with us. And then the other part is also, I think in terms of performance, yield, all the metrics, and defect density and the variation, we are making daily improvement on that so far. We are very pleased. We should be able to do the 1.0 PDK by Q1 next year, and we can start engaging with customers with products that they like to use our fab.

And so I think stay tuned—again, we will have time to announce some of the customers when they are ready.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

Thanks, Vivek. Jonathan, can we have the next question please?

OPERATOR

Certainly. Our next question comes from the line of Harlan Sur from J.P. Morgan. Your question please.

Harlan Sur (Analyst at J.P. Morgan)

Yeah, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Commencing second half of this year there’s a number of new GPU and XPU platform launches. Most of these new launches are going to continue ramp to the first half of next year given the strong CPU attached to these platforms, and many of them are Intel x86 CPU-based platforms. And then additionally, you know, in addition to the overall sort of supply dynamics which remain tight, but the team is bringing on more capacity, yields are improving as you mentioned.

Given all of this, should we anticipate continued sequential growth in DCAI in the first quarter?

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, I mean I would avoid guiding too much the quarter. I think your overall premise is right. There’s going to be a strong driver of demand for CPUs. We see that continuing all through next year. You know, we’re working on the supply side of the equation to make sure that we can meet what customers need. We will likely not fully meet what they require, but I think we’re going to be in a more challenging situation in the first half of the year than we are the second half.

So maybe that’s one added data point I’d make sure that you’re using when you’re modeling. Outside of that, I prefer to wait for another quarter and see how things kind of play out before we guide Q1’s data center.

Lip Bu Tan (Chief Executive Officer)

Just to add on that, I think clearly you saw our announcement with Oracle Cloud, and we also have multiple customers. They are all interested to sign up the LTA agreement with us so that makes sure that we can secure the capacity, not the CPU rollout for them. So I think those are encouraging sign that CPU is in high demand.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

Harlan, do you have a follow-up question?

Harlan Sur (Analyst at J.P. Morgan)

Yeah. On the factors that the team has control over and as a reflection of the continued yield, reliability, manufacturability improvements, I think back in Q2 both Panther Lake and Granite Rapids gross margins were below corporate average. But as Intel 3 and 18A saw further yield improvements in the third quarter, you did mention Xeon 6 Granite Rapids on Intel 3 accretive to gross margins in Q3. Did the team also drive Core Series 3 Panther Lake gross margins above the low mid-40% level in Q3 as well?

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

So we have definitely made meaningful improvement on the gross margins of Panther Lake. It’s not yet at or above the corporate average, but we have made huge strides, and this is just a matter of grinding it out on yields and throughput and driving the right scale and so forth. And these will be accretive gross margins over time. It’s just not quite there yet.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

Thanks, Harlan. Jonathan, we’ve got time for one last question, please.

OPERATOR

Certainly. Then our final question for today comes from the line of C.J. Muse from Cantor Fitzgerald. Your question, please.

C.J. Muse (Analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald)

Yeah, thanks for taking the question, I guess. First question, going back to the capex you talked up significantly. Curious, you know, how are you thinking about spend on WFE versus buildings? I think in the past you talked about, you know, majority of the incremental spend on buildings. Wanted to confirm that that’s still kind of the direction that we’re going.

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah. So we have, I think, a significant ramp in equipment spend this quarter, and it’s expected to be even more significant next quarter. So a lot of what we’re spending on now is really equipment. You know, we have made the investments. We’re, I would call it, in a lot of cases putting the finishing touches on some of the space, and most of the spend is going towards equipment. With the only exception, we’re still in the heavy construction phase of Ohio.

But outside of that, it’s really about equipment.

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations)

C.J., do you have a quick follow-up?

C.J. Muse (Analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald)

Yeah, I do. On the PC side, I know you’ve talked about units down 10% next year for the industry. Curious if you could comment how you’re thinking about mix shift and what impact that might have on your pricing. Thanks so much.

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

Mix shift in terms of like low end versus high end and so forth, is that what you mean?

C.J. Muse (Analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald)

Yeah, exactly.

Dave Zinsner (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah. I mean, we have, I would say, we have seen a, you know, we have seen strong demand in Panther Lake on a relative basis. You know, obviously the whole market is coming off, but Panther Lake is holding its own. You know, we also put a lot of effort into a product called Wildcat Lake, which is a cost-optimized part. We’ve seen significant growth in Wildcat Lake. It’s coming exactly at the right time because it’s cost-optimized and we’re seeing a lot of focus in that regard.

You know, as we go into next year, you know, we’ll have Nova Lake. And I think the important aspect of Nova Lake is, you know, we had a bit of a hole in our portfolio for high-end desktop and Nova Lake filled in that gap. So, you know, I would expect us to do pretty well on a mix basis because we should see better traction on the high-end desktop as well. So, you know, we’ll see how it goes. We do feel like we go into the year as a market share gainer with our Nova Lake portfolio and, you know, obviously we’ll kind of monitor the market and see how things kind of play out with that.

Lip Bu Tan (Chief Executive Officer)

I want to thank everyone for joining us today. We made good progress this quarter on our journey to transform Intel, but we still have a lot to work ahead of us. I am looking forward to seeing many of you throughout the quarter and providing another update in January.

OPERATOR

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.

Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company’s SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants’ and analysts’ statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.

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For the quarter ended September 2026, Intel (INTC - Free Report) reported revenue of $16.51 billion, up 21% over the same period last year. EPS came in at $0.52, compared to $0.23 in the year-ago quarter.

The reported revenue represents a surprise of +0.44% over the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $16.44 billion. With the consensus EPS estimate being $0.39, the EPS surprise was +33.33%.

While investors closely watch year-over-year changes in headline numbers -- revenue and earnings -- and how they compare to Wall Street expectations to determine their next course of action, some key metrics always provide a better insight into a company's underlying performance.

Since these metrics play a crucial role in driving the top- and bottom-line numbers, comparing them with the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated about them helps investors better project a stock's price performance.

Here is how Intel performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts:

Net Revenues- Total Intel Products Group: $15.42 billion versus $15.39 billion estimated by seven analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +21.8% change.Net Revenues- Total Intel Products Group- Data Center and AI: $7.32 billion versus the seven-analyst average estimate of $6.46 billion. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +77.8%.Net Revenues- Total Intel Products Group- Client Computing and Physical AI Group: $8.1 billion compared to the $8.93 billion average estimate based on seven analysts. The reported number represents a change of -5.1% year over year.Net Revenues- All other- Total: $692 million versus the six-analyst average estimate of $681.67 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of -30.3%.Net Revenues- Intersegment eliminations: $-6.29 billion versus $-5.74 billion estimated by six analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +48.8% change.Net Revenues- Intel Foundry Services: $6.7 billion versus $6.05 billion estimated by six analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +58.1% change.View all Key Company Metrics for Intel here>>>

Shares of Intel have returned -20.5% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +0.9% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), indicating that it could outperform the broader market in the near term.

A driver of FedEx loads packages into a delivery truck during Black Friday preparations in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, U.S., November 26, 2024. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Oct 29 (Reuters) - FedEx Freight (FDXF.N), opens new tab forecast earnings for the ​crucial holiday quarter above analysts' estimates on Thursday, citing improvement in ‌volumes after reporting bigger-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue thanks to better pricing.

The company expects 2027 revenue growth and adjusted operating margin to remain in line with its medium-term targets ​of 4%-6% and 15%, respectively, finance chief Marshall Witt told analysts.

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Shares of ​the company were up 3.4% in extended trading.

US shippers in the ⁠third quarter paid the most to move freight since 2021, data from ​the US Bank Freight Payment Index released on Thursday showed.

A surge in diesel ​prices due to the Iran war and a reduction in available truck drivers following federal immigration crackdowns also helped send rates higher.

Shipper spending surged 32.1% from the third quarter last ​year on widespread cost pressure, the US Bank Freight Payment Index showed.

FedEx ​Freight, spun off from parent FedEx in June, has focused on cutting costs and boosting ‌revenue ⁠by adding more high-priced freight, as well as stabilizing volumes.

The largest US less-than-truckload company reported an adjusted profit of $1.49 per share for the September quarter, compared with $2.10 per share the year before. Analysts expected a $1.36 profit, according to LSEG-compiled ​data.

The decline was ​tied largely to ⁠FedEx separation costs and higher fuel prices.

Quarterly revenue, meanwhile, rose 8% to $2.44 billion, helped by better yields and fuel ​surcharges, and above estimates of $2.37 billion.

FedEx Freight expects fourth-quarter adjusted profit ​between 65 ⁠and 75 cents a share, above analysts' expectation of a 53-cent profit.

It also forecast revenue for the seven months to December in the range of $5.58 billion ⁠to $5.65 billion, ​up 4% to 6% from a year before.

Following ​its June 1 spinoff from FedEx, FedEx Freight has switched to a calendar year from its ​previous June-May fiscal year.

Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas

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