Intel's revenue reached $19.6 billion on rising PC demand.
AMD, the biggest beneficiary of the PC boom, holds 20% market share.
Gelsinger's 7nm technology and foundry M&A concerns


Intel announced its second-quarter earnings on the 22nd, Eastern Standard Time, with revenue of $19.6 billion and operating profit of $5.1 billion. These figures exceeded expectations. However, the market interpreted the results as indicating a decline in profit margins through the end of the year, and Intel's stock price fell 2% in after-hours trading.

PC sales reached $10.1 billion, a 6% increase over the same period last year. Data center sales, on the other hand, declined 9% to $6.5 billion. This suggests that the surge in digitalization demand last year has somewhat subsided.

Gelsinger, CEO of Microsoft, analyzed the increase in PC sales by saying, "As people return to the workplace, they will likely continue to work in their old ways, so there will continue to be a need to increase the number and density of PCs." Furthermore, with the release of Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 11, scheduled for October, demand for PC replacements is also expected to increase.

Intel faces a challenge from AMD. AMD's PC CPU market share approached 20% in the first quarter of this year, compared to 8.5% in 2017. Its revenue also reached $3.4 billion, a 93% increase year-over-year. The market expected this to continue in the second quarter.

NVIDIA, Texas Instruments (TI), and others are also seeing surging sales, demonstrating continued demand for chips. Intel, despite delays in 10nm and 7nm chip production, also reported revenue that exceeded market expectations. Intel plans to release details on its technology plans at the end of July.

Meanwhile, CEO Gelsinger remained tight-lipped about Intel's acquisition of GlobalFoundries. However, he added, "Consolidation in the semiconductor industry is a long-term possibility," and added, "We are one of the companies that could become a integrator."

Following the earnings announcement, CEO Gelsinger predicted in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the global semiconductor shortage would persist until 2023. The automotive industry, in particular, has been hit hard by the shortage of key components. Germany's Volkswagen, which initially expected a slight improvement in the third quarter, now expects the automotive semiconductor supply situation to remain unstable until the end of the year.

Gelsinger's CEO said there were signs that the semiconductor shortage that has been squeezing the auto industry would ease in the second half of the year, echoing comments made by TSMC CEO CC Wei on the 16th.