Intel Chief Executive [Kicking] Pat Gelsinger added profits would climb after 2025. He added that Intel would want in if a consortium emerges to own the British semiconductor and software design company Arm was hatched.

“We are not big Arm users, but if some form of consortium came up we would be interested in making it part of our foundry business,” he said.

Gelsinger said gross margins will drop to 52 per cent this year from 58 per cent last year on a non-GAAP basis, Intel said at its Investor Day conference on Thursday. It saw levels of 51-53 per cent in 2023-2024 before a climb back to 54-58 per cent the following years.

Intel predicted a revenue increase of 1.7 per cent to $76.0 billion in 2022, then mid-to-high single digit percentage point growth in 2023-2024, followed by gains of 10-12 per cent for 2025-2026.

David Zinsner, Intel's new chief financial officer, promised rising revenue and profit. "We're going to instill financial discipline through this company." That includes using more outside capital for expansion as well as relying on local government grants, he said.

Intel's investment announcements over the past year include $20 billion for a new greenfield chip factory in Ohio. This week it said it would buy Israeli chipmaker Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 billion. Those investments will help Intel ramp up a business to build chips for other companies.

Gelsinger told Reuters that the Tower deal doesn't change its plans for investing in Europe and reiterated that an announcement would come soon.