AI infrastructure stocks tumbled in premarket trading in New York after disappointing results from Amazon and Intel. Amazon is down about 7% following Thursday's earnings report, as cash burn surged and weak guidance spooked investors.
Shifting focus to Intel, shares are down 25% in premarket trading. If losses carry into the cash session and exceed 26%, the stock could be on track for its worst intraday decline in Bloomberg data going back to 1982.
For traders just waking up to the Intel bloodbath on their terminals, Thursday's outlook fell well below Bloomberg consensus expectations as weak PC demand and supply constraints overshadowed surging data-center sales.
Intel expects fourth-quarter revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion, compared with analysts' estimates of $17.05 billion. Adjusted earnings are projected at 25 cents a share versus expectations of 43 cents, while adjusted gross margin is forecast at 38%, below the 42.8% consensus.
The weak outlook overshadowed third-quarter adjusted earnings of 52 cents a share, which beat estimates of 41 cents. Revenue rose 21% to $16.51 billion, roughly matching expectations.
The results showed a massive divergence between Intel's businesses: Data Center & AI revenue surged 78% to $7.32 billion in the third quarter, exceeding the $6.67 billion estimate. But Client Computing sales fell 5.1% to $8.10 billion, missing expectations of $8.82 billion.
"Despite near-term headwinds affecting the broader PC industry, we continue to see robust demand for CPUs and more broadly, for all our computing platforms in the long term," CEO Lip-Bu Tan sai
