SANTA CLARA _ Intel reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and sales Thursday as the semiconductor leader turned in strong sales from its data-center business to go along with solid gains from its traditional personal computer chip offerings.
After the stock market close, Intel said it earned 93 cents a share, on $16.1 billion in revenue, for the period ending March 31. During the same period a year ago, Intel earned 61 cents a share, on sales of $14.8 billion. Excluding one-time items, Intel earned 87 cents a share.
By that measure, Intel topped the estimates of Wall Street analysts, who had forecast the company to earn 72 cents a share, on $15.1 billion in revenue.
Intel said its results were led by what the company calls "data-centric" sales _ or, sales of chipsets for data centers, the internet of things, non-volatile memory solutions and programmable solutions _ which reached a combined total of $7.54 billion. Data-center revenue, in particular, posted the biggest gain of any of Intel's business groups, as it rose by 24 percent from a year ago, to $5.2 billion.
Sales of semiconductors for personal computers continued to be Intel's biggest revenue source, totaling $8.2 billion, a 3-percent gain from the same period in 2017.
In a statement, Intel Chief Executive Brian Krzanich said the company's results underscore "our strategy and the unrelenting demand for compute performance fueled by the growth of data."
Investors liked what Intel said, and sent the company's shares up by 8 percent, to $57.31, in after-hours trading, Thursday.
