The chip shortage didn't stop Intel from having its best year ever.
Intel is still feeling the impact of chip shortages. It is trying to take full advantage of the huge demand for a new PC caused by the epidemic because you can't make laptops out of Intel chips alone. But that didn't stop Intel from recording its best fiscal year ever-- in today's fourth-quarter 2021 earnings, it reported its highest quarterly revenue and highest annual revenue on record, of $19.5 billion and $74.7 billion, respectively-and four other revenue records. Profits are not so optimistic: net profit fell 21% in the quarter and 5% from a year earlier, to $4.6 billion and $19.9 billion, respectively.
Pat Gelsinger, Intel's chief executive, warned in October that chips from other suppliers were limiting the company's growth, when the company announced that its client computing group's revenue had actually shrunk by 2 per cent. Today, Intel's fourth-quarter results show that the situation there has not improved: CCG fell 7% year-on-year, also due to laptops. According to the Intel report, laptop revenue fell 16% year-on-year because it could not ship as much as it wanted, although it may make more money from each computer: the average selling price of these laptop components rose 14%.
But desktops grew, the rest of the company made up for the slump (in terms of revenue anyway), and Intel's data center group grew 20 per cent year-on-year to $7.3 billion. Demand from small businesses such as Intel's Internet of things Group (IOTG) and Mobileye, its self-driving car technology company, also increased, rising 36 per cent and 7 per cent respectively in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared with the fourth quarter of 2020. They have increased by 33% and 43% respectively this year.
In October, Gelsinger said the chip shortage would not end until at least 2023, which is a bit bad for Intel when you consider that PC is now experiencing some revival. The year 2020 marks the first big increase in the PC industry in a decade. Earlier this month, Gartner and IDC reported an additional 10-15% increase in sales in 2021, with PC shipments of more than 340 million units, and IDC analysts say it may have enough demand, if not for a shortage, or even more.
