The shortage of chips that occurred during this pandemic certainly had an impact on Intel, where they had difficulty meeting the demand for processors from the market. However, they instead recorded record revenue in Q4 2021.
In its Q4 2021 financial report it was revealed that Intel recorded the highest quarterly and annual revenue records, which were USD 19.5 billion and USD 74.7 billion, respectively.
However, in terms of net profit, Intel actually recorded a significant decline. That is 21% for Q4 2021 compared to Q4 2020, and 5% year over year, to USD 4.6 billion and UDS 19.9 billion, respectively.
Previously, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger had warned investors that their growth would be hampered due to chip supply problems, namely in Q3 2021 last October, when they announced that their Client Computing Group (CCG) revenue decreased by 2%.
From this latest financial report, it can be seen that the scarcity problem has not improved. The CCG division recorded a 7% decline in revenue year over year, which was due to declining laptop sales due to a shortage of components, so Intel was unable to ship as many processors as they had targeted.
Meanwhile, from the desktop sector, Intel's income rose. Namely from the data center sector, their income rose 20% year over year to USD 7.3 billion. For the Internet of Things Group (IOTG) and Mobileye divisions, demand rose 36% and 7%, respectively, with growth of 33% and 43% over 2021.
Last October, Gelsinger pointed out that the shortage of these chips will continue until at least 2023, meaning Intel and other companies involved in the sector will find it difficult to meet market demand, with PC sales increasing 10-15% over 2021, according to Gartner and IDC.
Despite the increase in revenue, Intel does not necessarily see an increase in profits, and that's not because the supply of components is hampered. But because Intel gets tough competition from other companies.
Not only AMD, but also Apple. During 2021 AMD launched processors for its laptops to flood the market. Plus Qualcomm is back to try its luck in the laptop business, which will certainly be a competitor to Intel's latest Alder Lake processor.