Intel, a U.S. semiconductor company, saw its earnings fall 20% in the fourth quarter of last year despite the global semiconductor chip boom.
Intel said in its fourth-quarter earnings released on the 26th (local time) that its net profit fell 21% year-on-year to $4.6 billion, the daily Wall Street Journal reported.
Sales rose 3% to $20.5 billion. This reflected the sale price of the memory semiconductor business.
Both sales and net profit exceeded Wall Street’s consensus (average earnings forecast). Wall Street predicted $19.2 billion in sales and $3.2 billion in net profit.
Intel, the strongest player in the Central Processing Unit (CPU) market for PCs and laptops, is expanding its investment in new factories and products as it lags behind its competitors in chip manufacturing.
On the 20th, it announced that it would invest $20 billion in Ohio to build a new high-tech semiconductor development and production base.
CEO Gelsinger said the global chip shortage is easing in some regions, but said it is still likely to continue until 2024.
“It (a lack of semiconductors) is still challenging,” CEO Gelsinger said. “We will see gradual improvement every quarter.”
Intel offered $18.3 billion in sales guidance in the first quarter of this year.
Intel closed with stock prices rising 1% after receiving a court ruling from the European Commission in 2009 to cancel the anti-trust fine of $1.24 trillion, but once fell more than 3% in overtime trading after its earnings announcement.
At the time, the EU Commission judged that Intel limited competition by abusing its market dominance and paying royalties, but the EU General Court canceled it, saying that no proper economic analysis was conducted.
