Intel closed out a busy third-quarter with stronger-than-expected financial results, but cautioned that challenges remained, despite posting its “fourth consecutive quarter of improved execution.”

For the three-month period that saw the US government take a 10 percent stake in the company, a partnership with Nvidia announced, the opening of the chipmaker’s new Arizona fab, and the launch of its new data center GPU, Intel posted revenue of $13.7bn, up three percent year-over-year (YoY), and six percent quarter-over-quarter (QoQ).

Net income for Q3 2025 was $4.1bn, a significant turnaround from the $16.6bn net loss the company posted for Q3 2024. However, the profit was primarily the result of non-recurring gains, including investments of $5bn from Nvidia and $2bn from SoftBank.

Intel also received $5.7bn from the US government during the quarter, and $5.2bn from the completion of the Altera transaction and a stake sale of Mobileye. The chipmaker also repaid $4.3bn of debt during the three-month period.

The company is anticipating 2025 capex of $18bn, compared to the $17bn it deployed in 2024.

While Intel’s Client Computing Group was up five percent YoY to $8.5bn, the company’s Data Center and AI segment saw a 1 percent YoY decline for the third quarter, totaling $4.1bn. Intel Foundry saw a two percent YoY and four percent QoQ decline, posting an operating loss of $2.3bn.

The chipmaker has yet to secure a major customer for its foundry business, but speaking on the company’s earnings call after the results were published, CEO Lip-Bu Tan expressed his confidence in Intel Foundry’s long-term outlook, saying, “Like our Intel products, my conviction in the market potential for Intel Foundry continues to grow.”

He doubled down on comments made earlier this year, saying that investment in Intel’s foundry business would continue to be “disciplined,” with the company prioritizing capability and scalability, and only adding capacity when it has “committed external demand.”

Despite Tan’s optimism, Intel’s CFO David Zinsner cautioned that challenges remained for the chipmaker, warning of a CPU shortage that he said could persist into 2026.

He placed the blame on both internal and external factors, firstly citing “capacity constraints” on Intel 10 and Intel 7 manufacturing nodes hampering the company’s ability to fully meet demand in [the third quarter] for both data center and client products, a challenge set to be further exacerbated by the fact Intel is not looking to build more manufacturing capacity for those nodes.

“There's also shortages even beyond our specific challenges on the foundry side. I think there's widely reported substrate shortages, for example... there's a lot of caution coming into the year, I think, across the board,” Zinsner said.

However, he went on to note that while “supply has tightened materially,” Intel was working closely with customers to maximize its available output, including “adjusting pricing and mix to shift demand towards products where we have supply and they have demand.”