Intel falls 29% in worst day since the 1970s as tech selloff spreads

Intel shares fell 29% on Friday, the stock’s worst day since the 1970s, after the chipmaker issued weaker-than-expected guidance. ¹ The company expects adjusted earnings of 25 cents per share on revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion this quarter. Analysts had expected $17.1 billion and 43 cents, according to LSEG. ¹

Intel pointed to two causes: a plant shutdown in Israel and a soft PC market. The company said the fab explosion earlier this month will cost about $600 million in lost revenue over two quarters. ¹ Finance chief David Zinsner said the PC slowdown should last at least through the first half of next year. ¹ Counterpoint Research puts second-quarter global PC shipments down 4% from a year earlier, with soaring memory and component costs doing the damage. ¹

The damage reached well beyond Intel. The Nasdaq Composite slid 2.9% on Friday. ¹ Nvidia fell 4%, Broadcom more than 5% and Qualcomm 11%. ¹ Alphabet had its worst day on record on Thursday, dropping more than 12%, and fell again Friday. ¹ Amazon slipped 1.4% after missing on revenue and profit while holding its 2026 capital spending forecast at $220 billion. ¹ Destructoid, which framed the day as an AI reckoning, also counted losses at AMD, Micron and SK Hynix, and says the Nasdaq-100 is down 10% since October 6. ²

Intel’s stake is not only a private matter. The U.S. government bought about 9.9% of the company last August under a deal that put $8.9 billion into Intel common stock at $20.47 per share. ³ CNBC estimates Friday’s drop cut the value of that holding by about $12 billion, though it remains a profitable investment. Nvidia’s Intel stake lost about $6 billion. ¹

Intel had gone into its report with shares up about 150% this year on demand for central processors in agentic AI work. ¹ D.A. Davidson downgraded the stock to neutral on Friday in a note titled “Not fixed yet.” ¹ The foundry business, central to CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s turnaround, still has no external customers for its new chips. Tan said on the earnings call that a couple of customers should be announced over the next two quarters. ¹

On the broader mood, Raymond James strategist Matt Orton said he did not see a “moment of reckoning,” but warned that positioning across the space remains crowded even with strong fundamentals. ¹ Destructoid’s take is blunter: it argues the AI market runs on circular money among chipmakers, memory suppliers and cloud firms. That is the outlet’s opinion, not a reported finding. ²

Our read: Look at the guts of Intel’s miss: a shutdown at one fab that made 10-nanometer chips, plus PC shipments down 4% as memory and component prices climb. That is a factory and parts-cost problem, not an AI problem. The part I’d watch is the foundry, since 18A is in high-volume production in Arizona yet has no outside customers. Tan promised a couple within two quarters. Real customer names, not guidance, will show whether the turnaround works.

For Intel shareholders, the first half of next year is the date to circle.

Footnotes

1. CNBC, “Amazon, Intel shares fall after earnings amid AI spending concerns”. Retrieved October 31, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

2. Destructoid, “AI companies flew too close to the sun: tech sector stock selloff sees Intel take the biggest hit”. Retrieved October 31, 2026. ↩ ↩²

3. Intel, “Intel and Trump Administration Reach Historic Agreement to Accelerate American Technology and Manufacturing Leadership”. Retrieved October 31, 2026. ↩