Intel just delivered its best financial results in years, yet its stock plunged over 20% after hours. Intel reported third-quarter earnings: revenue of $16.51 billion, up 21% year-over-year. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.52, surpassing Wall Street’s expectation of $0.40. The biggest growth came from data centers. AI servers require not only GPUs but also CPUs to manage tasks and process data—and Intel’s Xeon server processors are selling strongly. Revenue from this segment reached $7.318 billion, a 78% year-over-year increase. The CFO called it the strongest data center growth in 15 years. The problem lies in the next quarter. Intel’s guidance for fourth-quarter revenue is $15–16 billion, with EPS of $0.25—well below market expectations of approximately $17.07 billion and $0.43. Two areas are dragging performance: PC chip revenue fell 5% year-over-year, and the CFO expects weak PC demand to persist at least through the first half of next year. While demand for server CPUs is surging, Intel can’t produce enough—further hampered by a facility accident in Israel that reduced capacity. Before the earnings report, Intel’s stock had already dropped 3.6% during the day to close at $92.07; after the report, it tumbled another 20% in after-hours trading. AI orders are real—but Intel simply doesn’t have enough inventory to fulfill them right now.