Today (24), Intel announced the financial report for the first quarter of 2020. The financial report shows that Intel's first-quarter revenue was 19.8 billion US dollars, an increase of 23% compared with 16.1 billion US dollars last year, exceeding analysts' previous expectations. According to a survey by financial information provider FactSet, analysts had previously expected that Intel ’s first quarter revenue would reach $ 18.7 billion.

Intel's net profit for the first quarter was US $ 5.7 billion, an increase of 42% compared with US $ 4 billion in the same period last year; diluted earnings per share was US $ 1.31, an increase of 51% compared with US $ 0.87 in the same period last year.

In addition, Intel predicts that second-quarter 2020 results will be lower than analysts ’forecasts. According to IBES data from Refinitiv, Intel expects adjusted earnings per share in the second quarter to be $ 1.10, while analysts ’average expectation is $ 1.19 per share.

Intel said it was mainly due to the increased cost of preparing new PC chips, and said that due to the pandemic of COVID-19, it was not possible to predict annual performance.

Intel CEO Bob Swan (Bob Swan) said that due to certain local government restrictions, Intel had to "suspend" certain projects, but Intel's factories have largely been able to meet demand.

Chief Financial Officer George Davis said in an interview with Reuters that the "order at home" order in the first quarter of the world has driven higher demand for Intel chips. Davis said the demand for personal computers has also risen.

But Davis said that Intel expects gross margins to decline in the second quarter because of the higher cost of preparing its "Tiger Lake" 10-nanometer processor for the PC market. Intel plans to start selling these chips in the third quarter. He said that the cost of the new chip made Intel's profit expectations for this quarter lower than Wall Street's expectations.

Davis said, however, these costs will not affect the profit for the whole year, because Intel will sell these chips in the third quarter with a high profit margin.

Intel ’s customer computing business revenue is the largest contribution to the personal computer business. Revenue in the first quarter increased by 14% to US $ 9.8 billion, exceeding FactSet ’s estimated US $ 9.34 billion.

Data from FactSet shows that Intel ’s high-margin data center business revenue increased by 43% to US $ 7 billion, while analysts ’average expected revenue is US $ 6.32 billion.