Intel posts record sales in 2021 despite chip shortage

San Francisco, Jan 27 Despite chip shortage, Intel has reported its highest quarterly and yearly revenue ever, at $19.5 billion and $74.7 billion, respectively.

For its first quarter of 2022, the company expects revenue of approximately $18.3 billion.

In an earnings call late on Wednesday, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger discussed the chip shortage, particularly as it impacts laptops.

"Shortages in substrates, components and foundry silicon has limited our customers' ability to ship and finish systems across the industry. This was most acutely felt in the client market, particularly in notebooks, but constraints have widely impacted other markets, including automotive, the internet of things, and the data centre," he explained.

"As we predicted, these ecosystem constraints are expected to persist throughout 2022 and into 2023 with incremental improvements over this period," Gelsinger added.

Intel in Q4 exceeded top-line quarterly guidance by over $1 billion and delivered the best quarterly and full-year revenue in the company's history.

"Our disciplined focus on execution across technology development, manufacturing, and our traditional and emerging businesses is reflected in our results. We remain committed to driving long-term, sustainable growth as we relentlessly execute our IDM 2.0 strategy," said the Intel CEO.

Intel CFO David Zinsner said that laptop sales might also be affected by "inventory burn as OEMs work through inventory imbalances created by ecosystem constraints that have limited their ability to ship systems in certain segments".

Worldwide PC shipments totalled 88.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2021, a 5 per cent decrease from the fourth quarter of 2020.

This is the first year-over-year decline following six consecutive quarters of growth. For the year, PC shipments reached 339.8 million units in 2021, a 9.9 per cent increase from 2020, said a Gartner report.

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