Intel Shares Plunge 29% on Weak Q4 Outlook, Drag Down Nasdaq

Intel shares plunged about 29% on Friday, the chipmaker’s worst day since 1974 according to TheStreet, after a weak fourth-quarter outlook overshadowed strong growth in the September quarter.

The sell-off pushed the Nasdaq Composite down 2.86% to close at 25,437.00, its worst session since June. According to Yahoo Finance, the S&P 500 closed 1.82% lower at 7,580.07, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.09% to 51,770.31.

The Intel Q3 results, released after market hours on Thursday, showed revenue of $16.5 billion, 21% higher than a year earlier. Non-GAAP EPS more than doubled to $0.52, while GAAP EPS decreased 33% to $0.60. GAAP net income was down 18% at $3.3 billion.

Weak guidance pulls Intel shares lower

The forecast let investors down. Intel predicted fourth-quarter revenue of $15.0 billion to $16.0 billion, below the roughly $17.1 billion analysts had expected, according to market reports. It also forecast non-GAAP EPS of $0.25, lower than the roughly 43 cents expected.

The company guided to a non-GAAP gross margin of 38.0% for the December quarter, down significantly from its third-quarter figure of 44.1%. On a GAAP basis, it expects a gross margin of 37.1% and EPS of $0.10.

Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan said, “Our customers began signaling a PC slowdown based on the memory prices and availability.” Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner said he expects the PC slowdown to continue at least through the first half of next year.

Intel is also dealing with an explosion on 14 October at its Fab 28 facility in Kiryat Gat, Israel, which killed two employees. The fab was shut down for approximately two weeks. Zinsner said the revenue hit would be around $300 million in the fourth quarter and a similar amount in the first quarter of 2027, according to a call transcript reviewed by Tom’s Hardware.

He said the incident would cut about 2 percentage points from fourth-quarter non-GAAP gross margin, largely because of wafer write-offs. The assessment of the damage is still preliminary, according to the report.

Tan has been trying to reverse Intel’s decline since taking over as CEO in March 2025, and the foundry business plays a big role in his plans. The latest outlook shows how dependent the company remains on consumer demand.

AI demand cannot offset PC weakness

This quarter demonstrated Intel’s transition. Data Center and AI revenue grew 78% to $7.3 billion and Intel Foundry revenue grew 58% to $6.7 billion. The Client Computing and Physical AI Group, which includes PC chips, declined 5% to $8.1 billion.

Together, these trends leave Intel exposed in the PC market because of memory pricing. Higher memory prices drive up the cost of computers, and Intel said its customers have started signalling a slowdown.

Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com, summed up the market mood: “Strong AI demand is no longer enough on its own.”

Why it matters and what comes next

The slide in Intel shares matters beyond one company. It raises questions about how far AI demand can carry technology valuations, after Meta said heavy AI spending had turned its free cash flow negative.

The timing is also bad for the broader market. Stocks have been under pressure from elevated oil prices, with Brent crude hovering around $112 a barrel on Friday amid concerns about renewed US strikes on Iran.

The first thing to watch is how fast Fab 28 can return to full production. Intel expects output to begin ramping up soon but has not given a timeline for reaching full capacity.

Intel’s foundry ambitions rely on healthy cash flow from its legacy chip operations. A slowing PC market would challenge Intel’s ability to invest in additional capacity without further margin compression.

Investors will also be looking for evidence that memory-chip prices are stabilising, which would remove some of the pressure on PC makers. Intel’s next quarterly update, for the December period, is expected early next year.

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Region: USA
Meta title: Intel Shares Plunge 29% on Weak Q4 Outlook; Nasdaq Slides (57 characters)
Meta description: Intel shares plunged about 29% on Friday after weak Q4 guidance, a PC slowdown and an Israel fab blast overshadowed Q3 results and dragged the Nasdaq. (150 characters)
Focus keyword: Intel shares
Secondary keywords: Intel Q3 results, Nasdaq, Lip-Bu Tan
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Tags: Intel, Lip-Bu Tan, USA, Wall Street, Semiconductors
Category: News, Business
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Internal links used: https://businesseramagazine.com/business/meta-q3-results-free-cash-flow/, https://businesseramagazine.com/business/wall-street-stocks-brent-crude-yields/
Note: Fact & grammar check done — 44 corrections (mostly restoring figures, attributions and grammar altered by Phrasly). Phrasly humanization run paragraph by paragraph (headings, quotes and paragraphs under 30 words not sent). Intel’s exact closing price on 30 October not confirmed; the ~29% fall is per TheStreet/Yahoo (other reports cited 26% and 28.3% intraday). ‘Worst day since 1974’ sourced to TheStreet only (attributed in text). Index closes per Yahoo Finance ticker; TheStreet shows S&P 7,578.97, Dow 51,785.82, Nasdaq 25,442.31. Q4 consensus ($17.1 billion revenue, 43 cents EPS) and the Capital.com quote come from market reports, not Intel’s release. Fab 28 details (14 Oct explosion, two deaths, ~$300 million revenue hit in each of Q4 and Q1 2027, ~2-point margin hit) come from the earnings-call transcript as reported by Tom’s Hardware via BigGo Finance; not in Intel’s press release. No genuine India angle found, so none added.

Sources (fact-check):

• https://www.intc.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1786/intel-reports-third-quarter-2026-financial-results
• https://www.thestreet.com/stock-market-today/stock-market-today-dow-jones-sp-500-nasdaq-updates-oct-30-2026
• https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/live/stock-market-today-friday-october-30-dow-sp-500-nasdaq-amazon-intel-ai-sell-off-191429143.html
• https://finance.biggo.com/news/2e5e2a63-fd81-44a7-9c19-4123aa546279