Intel’s earnings this quarter — with revenues of $10.8 billion and net income of $2.9 billion — are the best the company has ever reported in its 42-year history, according to a release posted today on Intel Corporation’s website.
Apparently, Intel’s most powerful microprocessors are selling like hotcakes, global recession be damned.
“The PC and server segments are healthy and the demand for leading-edge technology will continue to increase for the foreseeable future,” said CEO Paul Otellini.
Year-over-year, revenue was up 34% and net income a staggering 175% as compared to Q2 2009. One of the highlights of the company’s quarterly report was the Intel Atom microprocessor and chipset revenue of $413 million, a 16% increase sequentially.
In Q2, the company spent $3.25 billion on research and development (R&D) and mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The company saw a net gain from equity investments of $204 million, around $25 million more than expected.
Intel’s finance team forecasts a Q3 revenue of $11.6 billion.
While all this is great news for Intel, it shouldn’t be looked upon as a signal of an industry-wide recovery — particularly for those web and social startups so dear to Mashable’s
heart. What we can infer is that the gadget sector is seeing a boom; mobile devices and laptops in particular have had a terrific year of launches and the resultant hype cycles, and many consumers are refreshing their hardware arsenals right now.
Notably, the refreshed MacBook Pro features Intel Core i5 and i7 processors; the new entry-level MacBook also has Intel’s 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU. And of course, non-Apple, Intel-chipped products that didn’t necessarily make headlines also did their part in boosting Intel’s bottom line.
Do you think Intel can keep up this financial momentum? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.