On Thursday (28th) local time, Intel released its second-quarter financial forecast, predicting revenue and earnings per share of $18 billion and $0.70, respectively, lower than analysts' average estimates of $18.38 billion and $0.83.

Rising inflation, a resurgence of the virus in China and uncertainty over the conflict between Russia and Ukraine have hurt Intel by shifting consumer spending away from electronics, according to Reuters. More than half of the company's revenue last year came from sales of PC processors.

Intel CEO Henry Kissinger said, "We expect Shanghai to be liberalized soon, but it does slightly reduce our expectations for the second quarter." "This will not change any view on this year, we think, into the second half of the year. , PC demand will increase.”

The better-than-expected first-quarter results helped Intel meet its full-year revenue forecast, he added. According to the financial report, Intel's first-quarter revenue and earnings per share were $18.4 billion and $0.87, respectively, higher than analysts' average estimates of $18.31 billion and $0.81.

However, Intel's largest Client Computing Group saw revenue drop 13% to $9.3 billion in the quarter. Analysts say remote work and learning have sparked high demand during the pandemic, but the PC market is shrugging off the high-speed growth of the past two years.

Supply chain bottlenecks could hurt Intel's customers and, in turn, its business, as the outbreak in China continues. "Intel still needs to demonstrate that it can meet its guidance targets before it can fully be considered strong," said Edward Jones analyst Logan Purk.

Meanwhile, revenue from Intel's more profitable data center and artificial intelligence businesses rose 22 percent to $6 billion in the first quarter. Intel is also facing increasing competition in the data center space, where peers Nvidia and AMD are ramping up chip production to meet the booming market demand for the metaverse, artificial intelligence applications and cloud computing.