Intel Q3 revenue rises 3% to $13.7b, posts $4.1b profit

Intel reported Q3 2025 revenue of US$13.7 billion, up 3% year-on-year.

The Santa Clara-based chipmaker posted net income of US$4.1 billion, compared to a US$16.6 billion loss in Q3 2024.

Earnings per share rose to US$0.90 from a loss of US$3.88 a year earlier.

Gross margin improved to 38.2%, up from 15% last year.

Intel’s Client Computing Group revenue rose 5% to US$8.5 billion, while Data Center and AI revenue slipped 1% to US$4.1 billion.

Intel forecasts Q4 2025 revenue between US$12.8 billion and US$13.8 billion, with expected GAAP earnings per share of $(0.14).

These results exclude Altera following its deconsolidation after the stake sale.

The company completed the sale of a 51% stake in Altera in September and received US$5.2 billion from the deal and a stake sale of Mobileye.

🔗 Source: Intel

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Intel received $5.695 billion in Q3 2025 from an accelerated disbursement under its Direct Funding Agreement (DFA) 1.
An Implementing Amendment removed milestone conditions yet kept CHIPS Act limits, including bans on dividends or buybacks using award funds and curbs on certain foreign expansions 1.
Funding terms had 274.583 million shares plus a warrant (a right to buy stock at a set price) for up to 240.516 million shares issued to Commerce, with 158.74 million held in escrow (held by a third party until conditions are met) pending disbursements 1.
Commerce can claw back awards if Intel breaches obligations, and the structure dilutes holders while adding compliance risk to the balance sheet 1.

Intel and NVIDIA are pairing x86 CPUs with accelerators over NVLink, a chip-to-chip interconnect with better bandwidth and latency than Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) 2.
NVLink Fusion moves x86 systems closer to NVLink, often abbreviated NVL, rack designs without a proprietary stack and lets OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) pair Intel CPUs with NVIDIA GPUs 2.
Interconnect suppliers such as Astera Labs, a data center connectivity chipmaker, see mixed impact. CPU to GPU links moving to NVLink could cut PCIe retimer demand while rack-scale connectivity may see more orders 3.
Cooling and data center vendors can build for these systems. Tightly coupled x86 CPUs with NVIDIA GPUs will create thermal loads that need specialized cooling.