It has been reported this week that Intel shares are down 13% this week, after the semiconductor company has struggled to meet the demands of rapidly growing interest in AI data centres.

The company forecast current-quarter revenue between US$11.7 billion and $12.7 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $12.51 billion, according to LSEG data.

It had been hoped that speedy data centre buildouts by technology giants would drive sales for Intel’s server chips, given booming interest in AI. However, Intel has had some difficulties in predicting global chip markets and has fallen behind fellow chipmakers Nvidia and AMD.

The company’s finance chief David Zinsner told Reuters during an interview that the company was caught off guard by surging demand for the sever central processors that support AI chips.

Despite powering full-steam ahead and seeing shares rise by 40% in the past month, the company’s data centre dealmaking has slowed. Zinsner reportedly said that, despite owning its own factories, Intel has a lag time in changing the types of chips it makes and didn’t expect data centre demand to change.

“In the short term, I’m disappointed that we are not able to fully meet the demand in our markets,” Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan told analysts during a conference call, adding that the company was “working aggressively to grow supply to meet strong customer demand”.

Intel recently launched its new personal computer chip, which Tan referred as an “important milestone” for the company, as it hopes to lead again in personal computers. The company had been eyeing a memory comeback last year, but more recent news about the global shortage in memory chips could thwart these plans, as the shortage is expected to impact sales across the industry and undersupply AI.

AI demand continues worldwide, having sent cloud computing giants scrambling to upgrade existing infrastructure and develop new partnerships to stay ahead of the technology race.

Chips have even become a political conversation, as the US and China continue to debate over exports – with the US expanding export curbs on advanced chips and chipmaking tools at the end of last year.

Nvidia remains one of the global powerhouses and posted a revenue of $57 billion in the three months ending October 2025, well-surpassing analyst estimates.

Moving forward, Tan has implemented a turnaround strategy focused on cutting costs and developing a fresh product road map. Zinsner also said to Reuters that Intel has held off on investing heavily in its next-generation manufacturing process (14A) while waiting for a large customer.

Intel’s stock did gain 84% in 2025, after more than a 60% drop in its share price in 2024.

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