This is the second consecutive quarter in the red for the group, which had already lost $664 million in the last quarter of 2022. In the first quarter last year, it had earned $8 billion in net profit.

From January to March, its revenue fell, plunging 36% year-on-year to $11.7 billion, its lowest level in more than a decade.

But the market expected even worse results, given Intel’s heavy reliance on makers of everyday electronics.

Revenue from its desktop and laptop components business fell 38% to $5.8 billion.

Global consumer computer sales slumped earlier this year, falling to a level below pre-pandemic levels due to a sharp drop in demand, according to firms IDC and Canalys.

Companies such as Apple, Lenovo or HP have excess inventory, and their customers have already bought equipment during the pandemic or are waiting for better days in the face of inflation.

Intel has embarked on a major reorganization in 2021 under the leadership of chief executive Pat Gelsinger, but the group will take time to catch up, analysts say.

Delay in AI

“Intel has long rested on its laurels,” commented Jack Gold, independent analyst, for AFP. “They didn’t do what they should have done to stay on top of the industry,” he said.

The Californian groups AMD and Nvidia have thus developed the latest generation chips, and are in fierce competition with it.

Nvidia is taking full advantage of the current craze for artificial intelligence (AI), which requires ultra-sophisticated graphics processors, its specialty.

In the first quarter, revenue from Intel’s components business for data storage centers (data centers) and artificial intelligence fell 39% year on year to $3.7 billion.

“Intel is trying to produce semiconductors that can compete with those of Nvidia, but it’s a new area for them, they haven’t made graphics processors for at least ten years,” notes Jack Gold.

South Korean tech giant Samsung also saw its profits plummet in the first quarter: they plunged more than 86%, the lowest in 14 years.

And Samsung’s chip arm suffered losses of 4.58 trillion won (3.1 billion euros), its first net loss since 2009, when the world was just emerging from the financial crisis. of 2008.

Intel remained cautious in its forecasts for the current quarter, citing the macroeconomic context (inflation and risk of recession).

“The personal computer market will stabilize”, predicted Pat Gelsinger, during the conference call with analysts, “but the server market has not yet bottomed out”.

The group expects revenues of between 11.5 and 12.5 billion dollars and net losses comparable to those of the past quarter.