Intel data center sales finally surge

Intel Corp’s stocks rose 3.8 percent to $47.06, boosted by a 10 percent dividend hike and the forecast. This directly hints that all is fine now afte  the recent disclosure of the security flaws which could allow the hackers to steal data from computers.

As we are all aware, Spectre and Meltdown created global concern among technology users sometime back. Citing this, the company commented on this incident and felt that they did not expect that to happen.

Software fixes for the problems would be succeeded by solutions designed into Intel chips themselves later this year, Chief Executive Brian Krzanich said on a conference call.

In an interview ahead of Intel’s earnings call with investors, Chief Financial Officer Bob Swan said the company sees no ‘meaningful impact’ on corporate earnings from the vulnerabilities.

“They had all these bullets flying at them with these chip flaws, but when I look at these numbers, it’s a blowout across all metrics,” said Daniel Morgan, a fund manager with Synovus Trust, which holds Intel shares. “That makes it a bulletproof quarter.”

Revenue from Intel’s PC group hit $9 billion for the quarter, a 2 percent decline from the year before, but ticked up 3 percent for the year to $34 billion.

Intel also saw strong growth in two small non-PC businesses that it hopes to expand in the future. Its so-called internet of things business, which focuses on connecting street lights and industrial machines to the web, expanded 21 percent to $879 million for the quarter. Programmable chips, which customers like Microsoft Corp are experimenting with using in data centers, grew 35 percent to $568 million for the quarter.

Intel predicted $65 billion in revenue for 2018, well above expectations of a $63.7 billion forecast. The company also said its tax rate would be 14 percent for 2018 after changes in US tax law that it executives said created a ‘level playing field’ for US manufacturers.

Intel warned in its earnings release that fallout from the discovery of Spectre and Meltdown could hurt future results, as well as customer relationships and the company’s reputation.

Analysts have said the biggest risk to Intel might come from customers using the disruption caused by fixing the bug as an excuse to press for lower prices.

The company posted a loss of $687 million, or 15 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 30, including a $5.4 billion charge related to recent changes in US tax law.