Intel Corp. Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger said the chipmaker is on course to hit its third-quarter forecasts, helped by an improving personal-computer market.
The stock rallied as much as 3%, reversing earlier losses, after Gelsinger’s comments Thursday at a Deutsche Bank technology conference. The shares were trading at $34.99 at 2:45 p.m. New York time, up slightly for the day.
“At this point, we say we’re above the midpoint of our guide for Q3, so we’re feeling good about Q3 as that progresses,” he said. “Overall, as we look at the current environment, obviously we’ve been through a strong bust-boom cycle.”
In July, Intel projected sales in the current period will be as much as $13.9 billion, compared with an average analyst estimate of $13.3 billion at the time. While sluggish demand in China and lower orders from some large data-center owners are weighing on its server-chip unit, PC processor inventory is now back to normal, prompting customers to resume ordering.
Gelsinger emphasized that he thinks Intel is on track to meet his ambitious goals to overhaul the Santa Clara, California-based company and restore it to the forefront of an industry it once dominated.
“We’re 2.5 years into the transformation. Now, it’s sort of gone the way I would have expected at the time in terms of rebuilding the company,” he said. “You have to be much less skeptical about our ability to pull this off.”
Gelsinger conceded that rival Nvidia Corp. has done well in positioning itself to take advantage of demand for systems needed to support the rapid spread of artificial intelligence software, but said Intel will soon begin to win orders in the market for these accelerator chips.
“They’re doing well. We all have to give them credit,” he said. “But we’re going to show up.”
