Intel Plunges About 30% on Weak Forecast, Setting Off a Chip Rout That Drags Down the Nasdaq

NEW YORK, Oct. 30 (TodayViralUSA) — Intel shares collapsed by roughly 30% on Friday, putting the chipmaker on course for one of the worst days in its history after a weak forecast and a warning on cash flow set off a broad sell-off in technology stocks and dragged the Nasdaq toward its steepest one-day drop since June.

The decline was set to erase more than $146 billion from Intel’s market value, Reuters reported. Heading into Thursday’s results, the stock had risen about 150% this year on demand for the central processors that power AI workloads, according to CNBC.

A forecast well below expectations

Intel said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion and adjusted earnings of 25 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected $17.1 billion and 43 cents. The company said it does not expect positive cash flow this year, citing a weak personal-computer market, manufacturing hurdles and heavy spending to expand production. CNBC reported that the guidance also reflected a plant shutdown in Israel.

Revenue in Intel’s client computing and physical AI group fell 5% from a year earlier to $8.1 billion. PC makers are being squeezed by soaring prices for memory chips, as AI data centers absorb supply. “We see the PC slowdown continuing at least through the first half of next year,” Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner said in the company’s release.

The result is a setback for Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan, who took over in March 2025 to revive a company that missed the early years of the AI boom. Analysts at D.A. Davidson downgraded the stock to neutral from buy in a note titled “Not fixed yet.”

Washington and Nvidia take a hit

The plunge also dented the federal government, which became Intel’s largest shareholder after taking a 10% stake in August 2025. The value of that holding fell by about $12 billion on Friday, while Nvidia’s stake lost roughly $6 billion, CNBC reported. The cost of insuring Intel’s debt against default rose to a record, with five-year credit default swaps widening 17.5 basis points, according to Markit data cited by Reuters. Intel held $21.84 billion in cash and equivalents at the end of September against $46.32 billion in long-term debt.

Chip stocks and the wider market

The warning spread across the semiconductor sector. By midday, AMD had slid about 10%, Nvidia 3.7% and a broad chip index 7%, while server makers Dell and HP fell 10.4% and 8.7%, Reuters reported. Amazon also weighed on markets after third-quarter results missed estimates and it reported negative free cash flow of $42.4 billion while keeping its $220 billion capital-spending forecast for 2026. Alphabet, which suffered its worst day on record Thursday, fell again.

As of 2:15 p.m. Eastern time, the Nasdaq composite was down 3.4%, the S&P 500 had lost 2.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 634 points, or 1.2%, the Associated Press reported. The S&P 500 was headed for a third straight weekly loss, and the Nasdaq was on track to end October with a decline of about 5%.

The sell-off reflects growing unease over whether the enormous sums being spent on artificial intelligence will pay off quickly enough to justify lofty stock prices.