Intel: CPUs for inference

Intel told investors this week that the next leg of artificial intelligence demand may run through its Xeon server CPUs, not just graphics processors. (intc.com) (theregister.com) In its April 23 first-quarter report, Intel posted $13.6 billion in revenue, up 7% from a year earlier, and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.29. (intc.com 1) (intc.com 2) Its Data Center and AI group brought in $5.1 billion, up 22% year over year, as Intel said demand kept running ahead of supply, especially for Xeon server CPUs. (finance.yahoo.com) (download.intel.com) The technical shift Intel is describing is inference: the stage when a trained model answers a user’s prompt instead of learning from massive data sets. Training has favored graphics chips for years, but inference needs memory, orchestration, and general-purpose compute that often sit on CPUs. (reuters.com) (theregister.com) Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan said on the earnings call that the CPU is “reinserting itself” as AI moves from foundational models toward inference and agentic systems. Intel’s earnings release said “the next wave of AI will bring intelligence closer to the end user, moving from foundational models to inference to agentic.” (theregister.com) (intc.com) Chief financial officer David Zinsner said the mix inside AI data centers is changing too: training systems have used roughly one CPU for every seven or eight GPUs, while inference is moving closer to one CPU for every three or four GPUs. He said more advanced agentic and multi-agent workloads could push that ratio closer to one-to-one. (trendforce.com) (msn.com) Reuters reported that demand was strong enough in the first quarter that Intel sold some server chips it had previously written off or shelved. Zinsner said that included de-spec and legacy products worked through with customers. (reuters.com) Investors treated the comments as more than a one-quarter inventory story. Reuters said Intel shares jumped more than 24% on April 24, while at least 23 brokerages raised price targets after the report and forecast. (reuters.com) Intel also tied the CPU argument to named customers and systems. Yahoo Finance’s earnings summary said Xeon 6 design wins included Nvidia’s DGX Rubin platform, plus partnerships with Google and SambaNova. (finance.yahoo.com) (intc.com) Intel’s next test is whether the inference story holds as supply tightens and the company moves into the second quarter with revenue guidance of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion. (intc.com)