Intel Q1 2026 Earnings Smash Estimates — Stock Surges 20% as AI CPU Demand Drives Turnaround

Intel reported Q1 2026 revenue of $13.58 billion (up 7% YoY, vs. $12.42B expected) and adjusted EPS of $0.29 (vs. $0.01 expected), driving the stock up over 20% in after-hours trading to surpass its dot-com era 2000 peak. The Data Center and AI segment grew 22% to $5.1 billion — the most important data point — as CPU demand surges for AI inference workloads. Intel CFO David Zinsner said the company sold chips it had originally written off due to unprecedented demand. The stock is now up over 120% year-to-date after rising 84% in 2025. Intel raised Q2 guidance to $13.8-14.8B revenue versus $13.07B consensus. CEO Lip-Bu Tan stated 'the CPU is reinserting itself as the indispensable foundation of the AI era,' with Intel Xeon 6 selected as the host CPU for NVIDIA's DGX Rubin NVL8 systems. Rival AMD and Arm also gained over 11% each on the inference-driven CPU demand thesis.