Intel datacenter CPU sales up 43 percent in Q1 2020

Yesterday evening, Intel published its first quarter financial results. The chip giant posted revenue of $19.8 billion, up 23 percent year-over-year, with non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) of $1.45, a massive 63 percent year-over-year increase. The non-GAAP EPS was 18 cents higher than analyst's estimates, while revenue beat by over $1.1 billion. Datacenter revenue was up 43 percent year-over-year, PC-centric sales rose 14 percent, and laptop chip sales were up 22 percent.

The company's first-quarter went very well as the coronavirus pandemic spiked demand for work-at-home products, which resulted in more processor and datacenter chip sales. For the full year, Intel is no longer providing guidance due to significant economic uncertainty.

ntel Corporation today reported first-quarter 2020 financial results. “Our first-quarter performance is a testament to our team's focus on safeguarding employees, supporting our supply chain partners and delivering for our customers during this unprecedented challenge,” said Bob Swan, Intel CEO. “The role technology plays in the world is more essential now than it has ever been, and our opportunity to enrich lives and enable our customers' success has never been more vital. Guided by our cultural values, competitive advantages and financial strength, I am confident we will emerge from this situation an even stronger company."

In the first quarter, the company generated approximately $6.2 billion in cash from operations, paid dividends of $1.4 billion and used $4.2 billion to repurchase 71 million shares of stock. On March 24, 2020, Intel announced the suspension of share buybacks in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The dividend remains unchanged. Intel expects to reinstate share buybacks as circumstances warrant.

In the first quarter, Intel achieved 34 percent data-centric revenue growth and 14 percent PC-centric revenue growth YoY. The company maintained essential factory operations with greater than 90 percent on-time delivery while supporting employees, customers and communities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes a new Intel Pandemic Response Technology Initiative to combat the virus where we can uniquely make a difference with Intel technology, expertise, and resources.

First-quarter data-centric results were led by strength in the Data Center Group (DCG) with revenue up 43 percent YoY driven by broad strength including 53 percent YoY growth in cloud service provider revenue. Intel's memory business (NSG) and Mobileye both set new revenue records in the first quarter. Also, Intel introduced a broad, data-centric portfolio for 5G network infrastructure, including the new Intel Atom® P5900, a 10nm system-on-chip (SoC) for wireless base stations; a next-generation structured ASIC for 5G network acceleration (code-named “Diamond Mesa”); and new 2nd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors.

The PC-centric business (CCG) exceeded expectations, up 14 percent YoY in the first quarter on improved CPU supply and demand strength as consumers and businesses are relying on PCs for working and learning at home. Recently, Intel launched the 10th Gen Intel® Core™ H-series mobile processors, including a new processor delivering desktop-caliber performance that gamers and creators can take anywhere.