AI news Nov 1, 2026

This week · October 29 earnings

Intel reports data-center sales rose 78% in Q3

Intel's data-center segment grew 78% year on year in the third quarter, and fourth-quarter total revenue guidance of US$15 billion to US$16 billion is still below the third quarter's US$16.5 billion. Our inference: AI lifting data centers doesn't guarantee total revenue growth at a company that also sells PC chips, and one Intel quarter can't be extrapolated. Intel reported US$7.3 billion for its third-quarter data-center segment and US$8.1 billion for the segment that includes PCs (Intel 8-K, 2026-10-29). CFO Dave Zinsner said on the earnings call that the data-center segment would grow by a percentage in the teens from the third quarter to the fourth, while the segment that includes PCs would fall more than 20% (third-party call transcript, 2026-10-29). Taking 15% as a rough figure, the US$7.3 billion data-center segment adds about US$1.1 billion (our calculation). A drop of 20% or more from US$8.1 billion removes at least US$1.6 billion (our calculation). That only nets the two segments against each other and isn't the change in total revenue.

Zinsner attributed PC weakness to memory shortages and limited IT budgets. The newsletter AINews wrote the cause as AI demand pushing up memory costs (AINews, 2026-10-30). In the remarks cited here, Zinsner doesn't directly make that link.

Next to watch: Intel's fourth-quarter report next January, whether the data-center segment reaches about US$8.4 billion (US$7.3 billion plus 15%) and whether the segment that includes PCs falls more than 20%. If that segment's drop is far smaller than 20% and total revenue tops the US$16 billion high end of guidance, this inference has to change. AMD also sells into both markets, and its next-quarter figures serve only as a comparison. How we checked →