Record revenues drive Intel profits

By Alun Williams

Posted on 15 Jan 2004 at 12:13

Intel counts its profits in the billions and records record revenues for the fourth quarter of 2003 - the chip giant has relased its financial figures for the last three months of the year.

In terms of product trends, record sales of microprocessors carried the day (or more precisely carried the flat sales of chipsets and Flash memory units) - in particular sales of server processors were noteworthy.

'We ended the year on a high note as ongoing strength in emerging markets coupled with improving demand in established markets drove revenue to record levels,' said Craig R. Barrett, Intel CEO. 'Intel's substantial investments in capital and R&D over the past few years allowed us to ship record microprocessor units in 2003 and introduce exciting new products such as Intel Centrino mobile technology.'

Looking ahead, Barrett was optimistic and foresees continued growth. 'In 2004', he said, 'our focus will be to drive double-digit growth through technology leadership and global market expansion, and by pursuing adjacent opportunities in communications and the digital home, while using our 90-nanometer and 300-millimeter factories to reduce costs and improve profitability.'

As for the figures themselves, Intel reported a fourth-quarter net income of $2.2bn (up 107 per cent year-on-year) from quarterly revenue of $8.74bn (up 22 per cent year-on-year). This broke the Intel's previous quarterly revenue record of $8.73bn, set back in 2000.

You can read the full details on thew Investor Relations section of the Intel website.