Intel shares fall 29% in a single day:Israel plant blast, PC market slowdown blamed for Trump administration losses

Shares of global chipmaker Intel fell 29% on Friday, marking the company’s biggest single-day decline since the 1970s. The stock fell to $66. Investors heavily sold Intel shares amid expectations of weak results in the current quarter, or Q4. The company attributed the decline mainly to production being halted following an accident at its manufacturing plant in Israel and the ongoing slowdown in the personal computer, or PC, market. Trump administration and Nvidia suffer billions of dollars in losses The fall in Intel’s shares has caused major losses for the US government and chipmaker Nvidia. The Trump administration acquired a 10% stake in Intel more than a year ago. Friday’s decline reduced the value of the government’s holdings by around $12 billion, or approximately ₹1 lakh crore, although the investment is still profitable. Nvidia, which holds a major stake in Intel, also suffered a loss of around $6 billion on its holding. Israel Fab Blast Causes $600 Million Revenue Loss An incident at Intel’s fabrication unit, or fab, in Israel is a key reason behind the company’s weak results and guidance. An explosion at the Israel plant earlier this month killed two employees and seriously injured another. CEO Lip-Bu Tan called it a “deeply unfortunate and tragic accident”, saying that operations at the plant had to be shut down for an extended period after the explosion, affecting the supply of Intel’s 10-nanometre chips. According to the company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), David Zinsner, the incident will cost the company approximately $600 million (around ₹5,000 crore) in revenue over two quarters. PC market slowdown weighs on Q4 outlook The company’s CFO, David Zinsner, said that the slowdown in the PC market is expected to continue at least through the first half of next year (H1 2026). Despite this, he said, the company will continue making disciplined investments in capacity and working capital to support future growth and increase supply. For these reasons, Intel has forecast revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion for the current quarter, significantly below analysts’ estimate of $17.1 billion. Sell-off across tech sector; Alphabet, Amazon and Qualcomm also fall The shock from Intel affected the entire tech and semiconductor sector. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index closed 2.9% lower on Friday.