Intel posts profit even as it struggles to regain market share

Intel has posted a profit in its first quarterly report since the U.S. government became a major shareholder in the struggling chipmaker.

The one-time American tech icon reported a net income of $4.1 billion, or 90 cents per share, in the three months ending in September, up from a loss of $17 billion, or $3.88 per share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed 3% from last year to $13.7 billion.

Stock in the company rose nearly 8% in after-hours trading to $41.10, adding to strong gains since the United States invested in the summer.

Recently installed CEO Lip-Bu Tan has been slashing thousands of jobs and mothballing projects to shore up the company’s finances and better compete with domestic and foreign rivals that have since overtaken it.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced in August that the U.S. government would take a 10% stake in the Intel as part of his effort to bolster companies deemed vital to national security. It was a startling move for a Republican leader, bucking the party’s long-held belief that governments shouldn’t try to pick corporate winners and losers with taxpayer money.

Intel handed over the shares in exchange for nearly $9 billion that had already been granted to it under the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. Intel had agreed to make major investments in U.S. manufacturing facilities in exchange for the funds.

Intel also received $5 billion from rival Nvidia in September. Earlier this year, it received $2 billion from Japanese technology giant SoftBank.

Founded in 1968 at the start of the personal computer revolution, Intel missed the shift to mobile computing triggered by Apple’s 2007 release of the iPhone. The company’s troubles have been magnified since then by the advent of artificial intelligence — a booming field where Nvidia’s chips have become tech’s hottest commodity.