Intel Q2 FY12/25 Earnings Review

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Long Train Runnin’

Nobody knows if Intel will make it or not, and anyone who tells you that they do is misleading themselves, or you, or both. Turning around a behemoth of this size which had decayed for so long, missing product cycle after product cycle, node size after node size, is not easy. But the company has made the right moves - a new CEO, heavy cost-cutting, investing in the new-new thing (the 18A fab in Arizona) - and it’s on the right side of history at the moment with the current and former Administrations both pushing to re-shore semiconductor manufacturing back to the US.

The numbers on the face of it remain terrible; TTM cashflows of negative $12bn whilst carrying $24bn of net debt isn’t a good look. But with any turnaround there is no point continually stating that the company is in a mess. Of course it is in a mess. The point is to look at progress or otherwise to becoming a not-mess, and then on to becoming a well-run company.

Let’s dig in.