Intel last night posted a 43 per cent rise in quarterly profit on strong sales of microprocessors for notebook computers and it gave a better-than-expected outlook, sending shares up 5 per cent.
The news indicated that the world's top maker of microchips was gaining market share from smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices, and also boded well for personal computer sales in the fourth quarter, analysts said.
"The overall message is one of strong demand," Intel chief financial officer Andy Bryant said in a telephone interview, adding that third-quarter revenue rose 16 per cent sequentially, which was the highest growth rate in 10 years.
"All worldwide markets saw reasonable growth and there's no question that Europe and Asia had the strongest growth," he said. "The US market was pretty normal."
Intel said its third-quarter net income rose to $1.86 billion, or 31 cents per share, from $1.30 billion, or 22 cents per share a year earlier. The results were helped by Intel's restructuring efforts as it moved to new technology.
Revenue rose 15 per cent to $10.1 billion, Intel said. Wall Street was looking for revenue of $9.6 billion and earnings per share of 30 cents in the third quarter, according to Reuters Estimates.
Intel also named a new chief financial officer: Stacy Smith, who joined the company in 1988. She will report to Mr Bryant, who is becoming the chief administrative officer.
Chief Executive Paul Otellini said a on conference call the moves were part of Intel's long-term management succession planning. He also said the company has seen no signs of an overbuild.
Over the past 18 months, Intel has restructured and is now moving to new chip-making technology, which gives it more semiconductors out of each silicon wafer. The company is also gaining market share against Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD).