Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Intel Boasts $2.3 Billion Profit for Q4 2009

Dena Cassella
By

intelbigIntel is often seen as a bellwether for the technology industry, and particularly so as the world creeps out of the global recession. The world’s largest semiconductor company touched bottom in the first quarter last year, but saw a signs of a recovery in the second quarter despite a $1.45 billion fine by the European Commision.

The third quarter was where things really turned around, and Intel expected even better for the fourth quarter thanks to Windows 7 and the new hardware upgrade cycle it would spawn. Those prediction have now come true.

Recommended Videos

The company reported revenue of $10.6B and profits of $2.3B for Q4, despite paying out $1.25B to its chief competitor AMD in a a major cross-licensing settlement. To put things in perspective, net income is up 875% over the same period from 2008. Gross margins reached a record 64.7%. Intel posted revenue of $35.1B and an overall profit of $4.4B for all of 2009.

Related

“We have seen a return of consumer demand and replenishment to normal inventory levels after the precipitous demand drop at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. The fourth quarter was consistent with this trend, with unit shipments seasonally up in the typically higher fourth quarter. In addition, we experienced higher average selling prices due to a mix shift to our latest generation of processors,” stated Stacy Smith, the company’s Chief Financial Officer.

The future looks bright this year for Intel as it ramps up production of new 32nm CPUs. It introduced 32nm Westmere-based Clarkdale and Arrandale chips this month, as well as started shipping N450 Pineview Atom CPUs.

Six-core 32nm Gulftown CPUs will be introduced fairly soon, but it is the energy efficient 32nm server chips that will bring in big profits. The new Sandy Bridge architecture and will also be introduced around the timeframe of the 2010 Intel Developer Forum. The first 32nm Atom CPUs will be shown at that time as well.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Dena Cassella
Dena Cassella
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Haole built. O'ahu grown
AMD might deal a huge blow to Intel with new 3D V-Cache CPUs
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D.

According to a new leak, AMD may be readying up some truly powerful Ryzen 7000 processors equipped with its 3D V-Cache technology.

The rumor suggests that this time around, at least three CPUs are in the works, and they're the top-of-the-line models, including the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, Ryzen 9 7900X3D, and Ryzen 7 7800XD. Equipping the already powerful flagships with 3D V-Cache would pose a real threat to Intel's top Raptor Lake CPUs. What can we expect from these gaming beasts?

Read more
3 reasons why I’m worried about Intel’s upcoming Meteor Lake chips
Intel Alder Lake mobility chip.

Intel recently unveiled its upcoming Meteor Lake CPU for desktops and laptops, and as a tech enthusiast, I'm really impressed. I'm also really, really worried.

Meteor Lake, or Intel 14th-gen, is still more than a year out, so it'd be silly of me to worry about performance. What I am worried about is how these chips are being developed and manufactured.
Meteor Lake uses too many different nodes and dies

Read more
Intel Arc A380 can be overclocked to 3.1GHz — but is it worth the effort?
Intel Arc A750M Limited Edition graphics card sits on a desk.

An overclocker managed to push the limits of the entry-level Arc A380 GPU to reach a frequency of 3.1GHz. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that this is the kind of result most users can expect to achieve.

The process of overclocking the Arc graphics card turned out to be needlessly difficult -- so much so that external software had to be created and then used instead of Intel's proprietary Arc Control tool. Considering how troublesome it has been, will regular users even be able to overclock their Arc GPU?

Read more