Intel Shares Plunge 28 Percent in a Day: The US Government's Stake Is Worth 12 Billion Dollars Less, and the Problem Is Called Artificial Intelligence

Intel had one of the worst days in its history on Friday: the shares collapsed by around 28 percent. That wiped 12 billion dollars (around 10.7 billion euros) off the value of the US government's stake. Yes, the government. More than a year ago Donald Trump's administration bought 10 percent of the company, so Washington now watches stock market crashes from the pitch, not the stands.

The Balkans know the story of the state as factory boss very well. What's strange is that it's now being played by the country that spent decades lecturing everyone else on free markets. The difference is that here every piece of bad news shows up instantly, on a screen, in dollars.

For now the loss is on paper. Even after the fall, Intel shares are more than 70 percent higher than at the start of the year, so the investment is still in profit for both the government and Nvidia, which also took a big stake in 2025. But the price is far from its summer highs, and the sell-off didn't stop at Intel: it spread to other tech stocks, especially chipmakers, and even Nvidia itself slipped a little.

It all started with the forecast. Intel expects fourth-quarter revenue of 15 to 16 billion dollars, while analysts were waiting for around 17 billion. Gross margin is set to fall from 43 to 37 percent, and the company is investing so heavily that it doesn't expect positive cash flow.

The irony is in the reason. The AI industry is hoovering up memory and other components, computers are getting more expensive, and buyers are pulling back. "Our customers have started signalling a slowdown in PCs because of memory prices and availability. Device prices have risen significantly since the start of the year, which puts further pressure on already constrained IT budgets," warned CEO Lip-Bu Tan. Translation: the boom filling Intel's data centre business is emptying its PC market at the same time.

And data centres really are growing: revenue from them is 78 percent higher than a year ago. Except Intel is hitting a ceiling here. To grow further it needs more factory capacity and outside customers, and for those customers it's up against Taiwanese giant TSMC. One of the new factories in Arizona is running, but the next isn't expected until 2028. Will a shareholder with 10 percent wait until then like any other investor - or will it start pushing like a boss?