Since Lip-Bu Tan took charge of Intel, Wall Street is already holding its breath. This earnings season has thus offered a mixed bag for investors, with a strong showing in the first quarter, a hazy forecast for the second quarter, and a leadership pledge to stop the bleeding, all wrapped in a box of uncertainty.

In premarket trading, Intel shares shed over 7% on Friday, following the chipmaker’s mixed signals in its latest earnings results. The company had posted adjusted EPS figures of $0.13 on revenues of $12.7 billion for the first quarter, which was above the analysts’ forecast of $0.01 EPS and $12.3 billion revenue. However, the company relaxed its revenue outlook for the second quarter and spooked the investors. Specifically, it projected that sales would fall between $11.2 billion to $12.4 billion for the second quarter, down the months ahead but this fell short of the Wall Street estimate of $12.8 billion.

Various Fortunes

The profitability report showed areas of bright spots. The client computing business made $7.6 billion, which is more than the forecast of $6.9 billion. Revenue from the data center and AI business was $4.1 billion, thus much above the projection of $2.9 billion. Intel Foundry revenue also resulted in a strong $4.6 billion, outdoing expectations of $4.3 billion in revenue. However, a part of this strong first quarter performance might actually have resulted primarily from forward buying by customers before tariffs actually went into effect. 

Intel CFO David Zinsner said,

“The current macro environment is creating elevated uncertainty across the industry, which is reflected in our outlook. We are taking a disciplined and prudent approach.”

New CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s Stance

The earnings report was the first one that Lip-Bu Tan had ever released as a CEO. It was during Intel Vision 2025 that Tan admitted lagging behind in innovation and promised to refocus on agility and performance. He said,

“For quite a long time, we fell behind on innovation. As a result, we have been too slow to adapt and to meet your needs. You deserve better, and we need to improve. And we will.”

Intel plans to reduce operating expenses by $1.5 billion over the next two years, with $500 million this year. While there have been no specific announcements regarding job cuts, it has been reported that the cuts might affect more than 20% of Intel’s workforce. Wall Street analysts remain cautiously doubtful about the CEO shake up and cost reductions. CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino said,

“While we applaud the enhanced cost-cutting efforts, share loss is an issue.”

Competitive Pressure

The major challenges for Intel still lie ahead. The company is losing significant ground to AMD and Nvidia in the PC and server markets, along with manufacturing innovation being under fire as well. The much publicized 18A process, which is of key importance in the battle against TSMC, is expected to boost in the second half of 2025, with skepticism hanging heavy in the air.

Talks for a possible joint venture with TSMC to run Intel’s own fabrication facilities could very well mean these strategic changes are underway, though further information is barely available. The uncertainty increases because of semiconductor tariffs being threatened by the Trump administration. Intel is in direct competition with the majority of semiconductor manufacturing facilities located in the U.S, yet it still relies on assembling its products such as laptops in China.

Investors Sentiment

The stock price of Intel has fallen by 38% over the last year. Still analysts remained skeptical and did not jump into conclusions. Oppenheimer analyst Rick Schafer noted,

“INTC’s core PC and traditional server markets appear ex-growth. We expect continued server CPU share loss this year. Intel Foundry remains unprofitable for the foreseeable.”

KeyBanc analyst John Vinh said that the lower guidance

“reflects cautiousness regarding the negative end-demand impacts of tariffs.”

Intel has appointed a new CEO, has fresh potency about its turnaround plan, and has retained all the qualities to make very swift decisions. But Intel is confronted with stiff competition, macroeconomic pressures, and a fairly skeptical market. The support given by Lip-Bu Tan in reversing the company’s decline depends on execution and innovation together with skillfully steering through a geopolitically sensitive tech landscape. Investors may want to hang on and watch but holding their breath for a turnaround could be a bit exhausting.