Intel Shares Climb More Than 200% This Year as Data-Center Revenue Grows

Intel’s stock-market recovery has become a much larger bet on its business: shares were up more than 200% for 2026, Startup Fortune reported on October 4. The gain follows strong data-center growth, but also leaves investors weighing a rich valuation against sharply different measures of quarterly profit.

Intel’s July 23 earnings release supplies the completed financial results behind that market narrative. Second-quarter revenue reached $16.1 billion, up 25% from a year earlier. Its combined Data Center and AI segment grew faster, rising 59% to $6.3 billion.

That distinction matters for readers assessing Intel’s place in the AI buildout. The growth figure covers Intel’s combined Data Center and AI segment, not AI sales alone. It is a reported result for that business, rather than a separate measure of revenue attributable solely to AI.

Management attributed the quarter to both demand and better manufacturing execution. Chief Financial Officer Dave Zinsner said higher factory yields and shorter production cycles helped increase volume. He also said Intel was increasing investment in equipment, clean-room space and substrates to support expected growth across products and manufacturing services.

Startup Fortune attributed the net loss mainly to a $12.53 billion charge from revaluing shares held in escrow for the U.S. Department of Commerce. That is an accounting adjustment tied to the shares’ market value, rather than a measure of how much revenue Intel generated selling chips.

Intel’s operating margin was positive at 11.1% under standard accounting, compared with a 24.7% operating loss a year earlier. The operating result and bottom-line loss therefore describe different layers of the same quarter. The company also reported $7.0 billion in cash generated from operations.

The rally has not been a straight climb. Startup Fortune put Intel shares around $119 on October 2, after an intraday peak above $142 in late June. It also reported a valuation above 60 times forward earnings—a price measured against expected future profit, not the quarter already completed.

Intel’s July outlook set third-quarter revenue at $15.8 billion to $16.8 billion. That range brackets its second-quarter revenue rather than promising another large sequential jump. It remains management’s forecast, not a delivered result: the stock’s performance and the company’s next sales total are separate measures of the recovery.