Intel Reports Q2 Tonight: 18A Yields Hit 85%, Apple and Microsoft Sign On as Foundry Customers
Intel reports its Q2 2026 earnings after the bell tonight, but what has Wall Street more excited than the revenue figure is that its foundry business is finally landing real, big-name customers.
Three Key Takeaways
18A process yields jumped to 85%. Last quarter it was 65% — a 20-percentage-point leap in a single quarter. Intel has also started risk production on the next-gen 18A-P node, ahead of the original roadmap. Yield is the lifeblood of the foundry business — that's how TSMC edged out Samsung in the first place.
Apple and Microsoft officially join 18A foundry. Both have become early design partners for Intel Foundry. Reports indicate Apple has committed to using the 18A-P variant for lower-end Mac and iPad chips, with volume production expected in 2027. Microsoft's specific product remains undisclosed, but it likely involves custom AI inference silicon. A year ago nobody believed Intel could win an Apple order.
Stock up 163% YTD — the market is betting on a foundry turnaround. Consensus expects Q2 revenue of $14.4 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $0.22. Data Center and AI revenue grew 22% year-over-year to $5.1 billion last quarter. But what Wall Street is really watching is whether external foundry revenue shows meaningful growth — that's the only signal that Intel Foundry is becoming a real business rather than a cost center.
WangDou's Take
Intel's story over the past two years reads like a middle-aged guy suddenly signing up for a marathon: everyone expected him to drop out halfway, yet somehow he's still picking up pace. 18A yields jumping from 65% to 85% isn't a slide-deck number — that's real-world fab performance, and every percentage point translates into billions of dollars in unit economics. Apple's willingness to hand over low-end chip production says more about TSMC's capacity crunch than Intel's charm — even Apple needs a backup now. But don't pop the champagne yet: Apple gave Intel the B-list. The flagship A-series and M-series are still locked to TSMC. What Intel needs to prove isn't that it can win contracts, but that it can deliver on time without yields slipping. With the stock already pricing in a full turnaround at +163%, tonight's earnings had better show a foundry revenue surprise — otherwise the pullback will be swift and brutal.
Source: TradingKey, IndMoney, Kavout