“With that said, Intel 18A is still early in its ramp, and rising input costs, especially in memory, present growing headwinds in the second half that we need to overcome.”

In context

“larger contribution from Intel 18A, still early in its ramp, and some inventory benefits in Q1 that are not expected to repeat in Q2. On the full year, we expect our factory network to continue increasing available supply in the third and fourth quarters at a more measured pace than we anticipated 90 days ago, reflecting the base effect of much stronger-than-expected first-half output. We also expect 2026 revenue on a half-on-half basis to follow the seasonal trends experienced over the last ten years, with servers above and PCs below. We were very pleased with Q1 gross margins, and we will continue to push for gross margin expansion. It is my top priority. Our foundry team is delivering consistent yield and throughput improvements across all process nodes, which will help gross margins. With that said, Intel 18A is still early in its ramp, and rising input costs, especially in memory, present growing headwinds in the second half that we need to overcome. For OpEx in 2026, we had been directionally targeting $16 billion but are likely to be higher due to inflationary pressures, variable compensation, and targeted investments we are making to capture the opportunities ahead. The drive for efficiency is core to the new culture Lip Bu is creating, and we will remain laser focused on finding additional operational improvements and maximizing ROI on all of our investing activities. We forecast capital expenditures in 2026 to be flat to last year versus our prior expectation of flat to down, reflecting increased capacity investments to support committed demand and a continued emphasis on improving fab productivity and output. We now expect expenditures to be roughly equal across the year and still to be heavily weighted towards the equipment tha”