Intel on Thursday marked its fifth consecutive year of record revenues for all of 2020 as CEO Bob Swan signed off following his recently announced replacement by VMWare CEO Pat Gelsinger.
“It has been an honor to lead this wonderful company, and I am proud of what we have achieved as a team,” Swan said. “Intel is in a strong strategic and financial position as we make this leadership transition and take Intel to the next level.”
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The company’s board also announced a 5% cash dividend increase to $1.39 per share, atop a better than expected fourth quarter.
Revenues for 2020 hit nearly $78 billion, up by 8% over 2019’s total of $72 billion. That total is expected to again secure Intel as the world’s largest semiconductor producer by revenue.
Client computing, data center, non-volatile memory all saw record full-year revenue. Also during 2020, Intel invested $13.6 billion in R&D and $14.3 billion in capital expenditures.
For fourth quarter 2020, Intel revenues drop slightly, by 1% to $20 billion, compared to $20.2billion n 2019. Even with the slight decline, the fourth quarter exceeded earlier expectations by $2.6 billion, Swan noted, driven by record PC-centric revenues. PC unit volumes were up 33% led by record notebook sales. The company also had better than expected data-centric results and record revenues for Mobileye, the autonomous driving unit.
“Demand for the computing performance Intel delivers remains very strong and our focus on growth opportunities is paying off,” Swan said in prepared remarks. His official departure date is Feb. 15, marking just over two years as Intel CEO.
On the earnings call on Thursday, Gelsinger said he will offer full year guidance prior to the April earnings call, saying he is just now diving in the company’s business. He also said he has examined Intel’s 7nm production recovery, saying he is “pleased with the progress with the recovery.” He said he would offer more insights on Intel’s 2023 roadmap later and said it is likely Intel will expand the use of external foundries for certain products even while keeping a majority of its products manufactured internally.
“I’m thrilled to come home to my dream job at Intel,” Gelsinger said. He started working at Intel as a teenager and rose to become its first CTO, spending 30 years at Intel on his first stint.
"This is a great company," Gelsinger said. "Intel is a national asset and needs to be healthy for America." Taking the CEO role "is an opportunity to help and unquestionably put Intel in a leadership position."
Referring to problems connected with 7nm production, Gelsinger added that Intel has seen up and down cycles in the past. He said he was personally involved when Intel was late to multicore technology in the early 2000s, but then came back "more capable than ever...Great companies come back from difficulty and challenge and come back more capable than ever."
He added, "Intel's best days are in front and I'm looking forward to the opportunity."
Intel's fourth quarter included the start of production for Ice Lake, Intel’s 10 nm Intel Xeon Scalable processor, and the launch of 11th Generation Intel Core processors.
Revenues for the current first quarter of 2021 are expected to reach $18.6 billion, Intel said.
Intel shares rose briskly by 6% prior to the market close on Thursday reaching 62.46. In after-hours trading, shares declined nearly 2%.