Intel, the largest chipmaker and a bellwether stock of the technology industry, reported on Tuesday that its profit rose 16 percent because of healthy growth in the computer industry and strong demand for notebook computers.
The report caps a period of good financial news for the chip industry, coming just a week after a rival chipmaker, Advanced Micro Devices, defied Wall Street's pessimistic predictions and posted a profit of US$0.03 a share, its first profitable quarter in three quarters. AMD said last week that it also saw strong sales of microprocessors.
"Demand is strong right now. Worldwide, business is good," said Andy Bryant, Intel's chief financial officer.
Bryant said customers were continuing to show a preference for lightweight notebooks, which have a higher average selling price than traditional desktop PCs.
Intel's profit was US$2.04 billion, or US$0.33 a share, in the second quarter, compared with US$1.76 billion, or US$0.27 a share, in the period a year ago. Revenue rose 15 percent, to US$9.23 billion, the middle of the US$9.1 billion to US$9.3 billion range that Intel projected in June.
Analysts were expecting Intel to earn US$0.32 a share on sales of US$9.22 billion, according to Thompson Financial. Intel's gross profit margin was 56.4 percent in the second quarter, while analysts were hoping for 57 percent.
Looking ahead, Intel forecast third-quarter revenue in a range of US$9.6 billion to US$10.2 billion, with a gross profit margin for the quarter of about 60 percent, plus or minus a couple of percentage points.
Intel executives also said the company set revenue records in China and in Latin America.
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