Intel Q2 2026 earnings beat expectations as Foundry losses narrow and revenue hits best growth since 2011

Intel just posted its Q2 2026 earnings, and the tone is dramatically different from a year ago — revenue, margins, and earnings per share all came in above expectations, and even the beleaguered Foundry division is showing signs of life.

CFO David Zinsner reported total revenue of $16.1 billion, up from $13.6 billion in Q1 and 25% higher than Q2 2025's $12.9 billion — Intel's best year-on-year growth since 2011. The Foundry arm still posted an operating loss of $2.1 billion for the quarter, but that's $348 million better than Q1. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said factories running Intel 7, Intel 3, and Intel 18A all exceeded internal volume targets in Q2, driven by better yields, faster cycle times, and increasing wafer starts. On the next-generation 14A node, Tan said defect density and transistor performance are already outpacing where 18A was at the same stage of development, with risk production targeted for the second half of 2027 and high-volume production in 2028. There's also a rumour circulating that Nova Lake desktop processors — currently expected to be fabbed at TSMC like Arrow Lake — may return to Intel 18A, though nothing official has been confirmed.

The contrast with Q2 2025 is stark. A year ago, Tan had just taken the CEO role and was warning there were "no more blank checks" for Foundry, threatening to halt cutting-edge node development if major customers didn't materialise. Intel was simultaneously cutting headcount and Tan was publicly acknowledging the turnaround would take time and patience. Now he's thanking employees and expressing confidence in the foundry roadmap — a notable shift in register. Intel 18A is the node powering the upcoming Core Ultra 300 Panther Lake mobile chips, and recent reports have suggested yield improvements that address earlier wafer-to-wafer variability problems, which would go a long way toward making the node commercially viable.

Whether this momentum holds is the big question. Foundry is still burning cash at a significant rate, and 14A won't be relevant for consumer PC hardware for several years yet. But after months of acquisition rumours and existential questions about Intel's future, a quarter this solid at least gives the company something to build on.