Tag: Intel

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Actuality Winner, who leaked Russia intel to The Intercept, launched from jail

Reality Winner, who leaked Russia intel to The Intercept, released from prison

Reality winner leaves the Augusta Courthouse on June 8, 2017 in Augusta, Georgia. The winner is an intelligence industry contractor accused of leaking National Security Agency (NSA) documents.

Sean Rayford | Getty Images

Reality Winner, a former Air Force linguist who pleaded guilty in 2018 to leaked an intelligence report on Russian interference in the 2016 elections, has been released from prison, her lawyer said Monday.

“I’m very excited to announce that Reality Winner has been released from prison,” Alison Grinter Allen wrote in a post on Twitter. “She is still on remand during the re-entry process, but we are relieved and hopeful.”

According to a website from the Bureau of Prisons, Winner is currently in a re-entry facility in San Antonio. Your discharge date from the facility is November 23, 2021.

Winner, now 29, was 25 when she printed out a classified intelligence report at the Georgia National Security Agency facility where she worked and made it available to journalists for investigative news agency The Intercept.

A story based on Winners Leak was published on June 5, 2017 with the headline: “TOP SECRET NSA REPORT DETAILS RUSSIAN HACKING EFFORT DAYS BEFORE 2016 ELECTION.”

“Just days before the presidential election last November, Russian military intelligence launched a cyberattack on at least one US election software provider and sent spear phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials, according to a top-secret intelligence report by The Intercept.” said the article, written by journalists Matthew Cole, Richard Esposito, Sam Biddle and Ryan Grim.

Winner was sentenced to five years and three months in August 2018. According to Allen, Winner’s early release was not the product of “a pardon or compassionate release process, but rather the time earned through exemplary behavior during incarceration.”

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Allen added that Winner was still prevented from making public statements or appearances. Winner and her family, Allen said, “have sought privacy during the transition process as they work to heal the trauma of incarceration and rebuild the lost years.”

Winner’s case was an early example of the tough approach that President Donald Trump’s administration took against the defendants of divulging confidential government information. Prosecutors at the time said Winner’s sentence would be the longest serving a federal defendant for media leakage.

The case also reflected poorly on the source protection methods used by The Intercept. In 2017, Editor-in-Chief Betsy Reed issued a statement acknowledging that “at several points in the editorial process, our practices have fallen short of the standards we adhere to to minimize the risks of source exposure when handling anonymously provided materials.”

Winner was arrested on June 3, 2017, two days before The Intercept published his article based on the document she provided. Investigators said they tracked down Winner after discovering that whoever leaked the secret document had printed it out. Sieger was one of only half a dozen people who had printed the document, and she had also used her work computer to email someone at The Intercept.

The winner’s release comes as the Biden administration is under pressure from aggressive maneuvers by the Justice Department under Trump to uncover the source of the leaked material. On Friday, the Inspector General of the Justice Department said he would investigate the previous seizure of electronic records from journalists in major news outlets and Democratic members of Congress as part of a leak investigation.

It was reported Monday that John Demers, a senior Justice Department official overseeing these leak investigations, will be leaving in two weeks. A Justice Department spokesman said Demers’ departure was planned prior to the latest scandal.

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Biden orders nearer evaluation of Covid origins as U.S. intel weighs Wuhan lab leak concept

Biden orders closer review of Covid origins as U.S. intel weighs Wuhan lab leak theory

Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan as members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus make a visit to the institute in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province on February 3, 2021.

Hector Retamal | AFP | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced that he has ordered a closer intelligence review of what he said were two equally plausible scenarios of the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Biden revealed that earlier this year he tasked the Intelligence Community with preparing “a report on their most up-to-date analysis of the origins of Covid-19, including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident.”

“As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Community has ‘coalesced around two likely scenarios’ but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question,” Biden said in a statement.

“Here is their current position: ‘while two elements in the IC leans toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter – each with low or moderate confidence – the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other,” said the president.

Biden used the Intelligence Community’s traditional language when they provide assessments to a president. This includes explaining to the president when different agencies within the IC disagree, and always giving the president the level of confidence they have in the accuracy of the raw intelligence.

Biden issued the new directives as the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, still officially unknown, come under increasing scrutiny.

The hypothesis that the virus may have escaped from a laboratory, while initially dismissed by some as a conspiracy theory, has in recent months gained more mainstream traction.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky last week said in Senate testimony that a lab-leak origin “certainly” was “one possibility.”

White House officials told reporters Tuesday that China hasn’t been “completely transparent” in the global investigation into the origins of Covid-19, and that a full investigation is needed to determine whether the virus that’s killed almost 3.5 million people came from nature or a lab.

“We need to get to the bottom of this, whatever the answer may be,” White House senior covid-19 advisor Andy Slavitt told reporters at a covid briefing Tuesday. “We need a completely transparent process from China, we need the [World Health Organization] to assist in that matter and we don’t feel like we have that now.”

The World Health Organization said in March that it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus was introduced to humans through an accidental lab leak. But that report was heavily criticized by scientists who said the WHO gave the possibility of a lab accident short shrift compared with a natural-origin scenario..

“The report lacks crucial data, information, and access. It represents a partial and incomplete picture,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at the time when asked about WHO’s stance on Covid’s origins.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which leads the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to CNBC.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

—- CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger and Amanda Macias contributed to this story.

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Politics

White Home to host Google, Intel CEOs to debate chip provide chain

White House studying supply chain 'stress tests' after semiconductor shortages, sources say 

President Joe Biden holds a chip in his hand before speaking in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, USA, on February 24, 2021, ahead of the signing of an ordinance to remedy a global semiconductor shortage.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Executives from companies like Google parent Alphabet, AT&T, Intel and General Motors will attend a virtual summit at the White House on Monday to address the global semiconductor shortage.

The summit comes when the Biden administration embarks on a review of key U.S. supply chains, including those for semiconductors, high-capacity batteries, medical supplies and rare earth metals. The shortage of computer chips is affecting a number of industries, from electric vehicle manufacturers to medical supplies.

Automakers like GM and Ford recently had to cut production estimates or extend downtime to address the shortage. The supply chain was initially at risk at the start of the Covid pandemic, as a large part of the world’s chips are manufactured in Asia, where the crisis first appeared.

US officials and lawmakers have highlighted the potential safety implications of the country’s reliance on other countries for semiconductors. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said in February that “semiconductor manufacturing is a dangerous flaw in our economy and national security.”

For economic and national security reasons, the supply chain assessment set out in Biden’s February Executive Order seeks to assess “the resilience and capacity of America’s manufacturing and industrial defense base supply chains in support of national security [and] Emergency preparedness. “

The White House has also said it is trying to fill gaps in domestic production and supply chains that are “dominated or passed through nations that are becoming or becoming unfriendly or unstable”.

While the White House review does not specifically mention China, the directive is likely largely an attempt by the government to determine how dependent the US economy and military are on a critical group of Chinese exports.

According to the White House, the virtual summit will be hosted by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and NEC Director Brian Deese, and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. Attendees will discuss Biden’s American employment plan and strengthening the U.S. semiconductor supply chain, according to the White House.

Here is the full list of companies whose executives are expected to attend the summit:

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WATCH: Chip scarcity is slowing production of game consoles, cars, and more

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World News

Shares are set to rebound with Dow futures up 100 factors, Intel shares acquire

5 things to know before the stock market opens Feb 17, 2021

U.S. stocks are likely to rebound on Wednesday as investors again bet on a strong economic recovery from the pandemic.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 130 points, or 0.4%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.5% while Nasdaq futures rose 0.8%.

Intel’s shares drove market gains that rose nearly 5% after the chip giant announced plans for a comeback. He opened two new factories to manufacture his own chips and those for other companies.

The Dow lost more than 300 points on Tuesday, as Caterpillar stocks fell 3% late in the day as it worried about the surge in new coronavirus cases in the US and abroad. The S&P 500 fell 0.8%, with airlines and cruise lines taking significant losses. The small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 fell 3.58% on its worst day since June.

However, cruise lines and airlines rebounded on the Wednesday before entering the market, with Carnival and United Airlines shares soaring more than 2%. Energy stocks also rebounded as oil prices rebounded.

Fundstrat Global Advisors’ Tom Lee said his clients were concerned about the increasing cases of Covid in Europe, but he believes Tuesday’s sell-off had more to do with the portfolio realignment towards the end of the quarter and superstitious investors a year after took profits at the lows of the market. He is still betting on stocks that will benefit the most from an economic recovery compared to previous post-war periods.

“After the war, cyclical companies will become new growth stocks,” Lee told CNBC. “This is what happened. It happened in Iraq and the Middle East. It happened in Japan. It happened in Korea after the Korean War. It happened in the US after World War II and the Korean War. This is a post-war environment . “”

In many regions of the world there are actually increasing Covid-19 cases as highly contagious variants continue to spread, according to the World Health Organization. Germany and France are extending or enforcing new lockdown measures.

But the pace of vaccination in the US is picking up, with nearly one in five adults now fully vaccinated.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will continue their testimony before the US House Committee on Financial Services on Wednesday. When they first appeared together on Tuesday, the pair acknowledged the highly valued asset prices in the markets but said they are not concerned about financial stability.

“I would say that while the valuation of assets is increased by historical metrics, there is also a belief that with rapid vaccinations the economy can get back on track,” Yellen said during the testimony. “I think in an environment with high asset prices, it is important that regulators make sure that the financial sector is resilient and that markets are functioning well.”

Powell said the economic recovery from the pandemic “has advanced faster than generally expected and appears to be strengthening”.

However, he said the economic sectors hardest hit by the pandemic “remain weak” and the unemployment rate “underestimates the deficit,” so the recovery still has a long way to go.

Government bond yields fell on Tuesday and continued to decline slightly on Wednesday.

General Mills, Tencent, KB Homes and RH are among the companies posting profits on Wednesday.

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Business

Intel plans to spend $20 billion on two new chip factories in Arizona.

Intel plans to spend $20 billion on two new chip factories in Arizona.

Intel’s new CEO doubles chip manufacturing in the US and Europe, a surprise bet that government officials worried about component shortages and dependency on factories in Asia may please government officials.

Patrick Gelsinger, who took the top position in February, said Tuesday he plans to spend $ 20 billion on two new factories near existing facilities in Arizona. He also vowed that in addition to making the processors it has long developed and sold, Intel would become a major manufacturer of chips for other companies.

Intel had stumbled in developing new manufacturing processes that improve chip performance by packing more tiny transistors onto each piece of silicon. The lead in this costly miniaturization race had shifted to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Samsung Electronics, whose foundry services manufacture chips for companies such as Apple, Amazon, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

Some investors and analysts had urged Intel to outsource or stop manufacturing in favor of outside foundries, an approach most other chipmakers are taking to drive profits.

However, a pandemic-induced shortage of semiconductors for automobiles, appliances and other products has underscored the critical role that chip factories play in supporting many industries. And before recent concerns, concerns over Asian foundries’ proximity to China had already led Congress and several branches of the Trump and Biden administrations to support plans to encourage more domestic chip manufacturing, even though funding had not yet been made available.

Officials in Europe have also made proposals for new factories to reduce reliance on chips made abroad.

The Intel strategy recognizes that “the world no longer wants to depend on the ring of fire that is right next to China,” said G. Dan Hutcheson, industry analyst at VLSI Research. “It’s very trend-setting.”

TSMC previously announced plans for a new factory in Arizona, a $ 12 billion project that is expected to receive federal funding. Samsung is seeking government incentives to expand its Austin, Texas facility by $ 17 billion.

Mr. Gelsinger, who first came to Intel at the age of 18, left the company in 2009 after 30 years. He was CEO of software company VMware for eight years before Intel’s board of directors persuaded him to replace Robert Swan, who was fired in January.

Intel said its new global foundry service will be operated from the US and Europe. Further plant expansions are expected to be announced in the next year. It already has plants in Ireland and Israel.

“The industry needs more geographically balanced production capacities,” said Gelsinger.

Intel hopes to negotiate with the Biden administration and other governments to get incentives to expand manufacturing, said Donald Parker, vice president of Intel.

Although Intel manufactures most of its products in-house, Intel has long used outside foundries for some less advanced chips. Mr Gelsinger said the company will add some flagship microprocessors, the calculating machines used in most computers, to that strategy. This will include some chips for PCs and data centers in 2023 and will give Intel more flexibility in meeting customer needs.

However, manufacturing will remain the core of Intel’s strategy despite recent technical problems, Gelsinger said.

He said significant improvements were made in the next production process, which was delayed last summer. Intel will also form a new partnership with IBM to develop new chip manufacturing technologies, he added.

Mr Gelsinger’s plans are met with skepticism. In addition to recent manufacturing technology issues, Intel has historically tried to act as a foundry for other companies with little success.

However, Intel has changed these plans in several ways. For one, it will be ready for the first time to license its technical crown jewels – the so-called x86 designs used in most of the world’s computers – so customers can incorporate that processing power into chips they are developing for the Intel company, said.

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Politics

Russia and Iran tried to intervene with 2020 election, US intel businesses say

Russia and Iran tried to interfere with 2020 election, US intel agencies say

Russia and Iran were conducting operations to try to meddle in the 2020 presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, according to a U.S. intelligence report released Tuesday.

U.S. intelligence also noted that China made no attempt to change the 2020 race outcome, and there is no evidence that foreign actors tried to change the U.S. ballot or voting tables, the report said .

The assessment was released as the Biden administration works to strengthen ties with key US allies to put pressure on Russia and Iran.

“On his first phone call with President Putin, President Biden knew the United States would respond to a series of destabilizing Russian actions,” a White House official said in a statement to NBC News late Tuesday.

These actions include the SolarWinds hack, for which, according to US authorities, Russia is likely to be responsible, as well as the alleged poisoning of the well-known Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny.

“You have already seen that we have taken a number of measures to respond to the use of a chemical weapon by Russia in the attempted murder of Alexey Navalny,” the official said. “There will be more soon.”

Tehran and Moscow have previously denied any involvement in an attempt to influence the US elections.

The report said, however, that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “approved influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, and undermining public confidence in the electoral process.” to exacerbate the socio-political divisions in the USA “.

One of Moscow’s key strategies, according to the report, was to use proxies affiliated with Russian intelligence agencies to spread misleading claims and narratives among certain US media and individuals – “including some close to former President Trump and his administration”.

These plans have been put into action by “a number of Russian government organizations,” according to the report.

Iran “meanwhile,” carried out a complex covert campaign of influence to undermine former President Trump’s prospects for re-election – without directly promoting his rivals – in order to undermine public confidence in the electoral process and US institutions, and to sow division and to exacerbate social tensions in the US, “the report said.

Intelligence experts also noted that China, previously believed to be expanding its US influence efforts, ultimately failed to use any operations to influence the outcome of the Trump-Biden election.

Chinese President Xi Jinping

Fred Dufour | AFP | Getty Images

“China sought stability in its relations with the United States and did not see either election result as favorable enough for China to risk meddling,” the report said.

Beijing “assessed its traditional instruments of influence – especially targeted economic measures and lobbying – as sufficient to achieve its goal of shaping politics between the US and China independently of the winner.”

However, an expert – the National Cyber ​​Intelligence Officer – noted that China “has taken some steps to undermine the re-election of former President Trump”.

These assessments, each made with “high confidence”, were published in a declassified report released by the Office of the Director of the National Intelligence Service. The investigation was conducted by the Department of Justice and Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

The report also found that, unlike the previous presidential cycle, there was no evidence of foreign actors attempting to change voter registration, ballot papers, or voting in the 2020 US election.

“We estimate that it would be difficult for a foreign actor to manipulate electoral processes on a large scale without doing so by gathering information about the actors themselves, by monitoring the physical and cybersecurity of electoral systems across the country or by Audits after the elections will be determined, “wrote the authors of the intelligence report.

In a statement, House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Stressed that the report shows that Russia remains the greatest threat to the US elections.

While China and Iran have also “taken specific steps related to US elections,” Schiff said, they are “on a far less significant or systematic level than those taken by Russia.”

“We have to be clear and straightforward to the American people that different countries have different intentions and capabilities and do not threaten our free and fair elections equally,” said Schiff.

Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, D-Va., Said while the U.S. has stepped up its defenses against foreign interference, “The problem of foreign actors trying to influence American voters is not going away and, given the current partisan differences in this country, it could find fertile ground on which to grow in the future.”

In addition to Iran and Russia, the investigation found that Cuba, Venezuela and Lebanese Hezbollah also worked to influence the elections, albeit on a smaller scale.

The unclassified rating released on Tuesday builds on the analysis the intelligence services provided to policy makers throughout the 2020 election cycle.

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Politics

U.S. intel says Saudi crown prince authorised killing of Jamal Khashoggi

U.S. intel says Saudi crown prince approved killing of Jamal Khashoggi

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation to arrest or kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. This emerges from a US intelligence report that could have far-reaching implications for US-Saudi Arabia relations.

The report released on Friday by the Office of the Director of the National Intelligence Service mentioned the Crown Prince’s control over decision-making in Saudi Arabia, as well as the involvement of a key advisor and members of his protection department in the operation in which Khashoggi was killed.

“Since 2017, the Crown Prince has had absolute control over the kingdom’s security and intelligence organizations, so it is highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this type without the Crown Prince’s approval,” the report said.

The CIA-led assessment that had so far been classified comes from President Joe Biden, who aims to reshape US relations with Saudi Arabia after years of the Trump administration’s condemnation of the kingdom’s human rights abuses despite condemnation in Congress and ignored at the United Nations.

Khashoggi, a 59-year-old U.S. citizen and Washington Post employee who criticized the Saudi royal family, entered a Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2, 2018 and never left the country. He was killed by a group of assassins who then dismembered his body. His remains were never recovered.

“The Crown Prince viewed Khashoggi as a threat to the kingdom and largely supported the use of violent measures to silence him,” the US intelligence report said. “Although Saudi officials planned an unspecified operation against Khashoggi in advance, we don’t know how far in advance Saudi officials decided to harm him.”

In a diplomatic reprimand to the Crown Prince this week, the White House made it clear that Biden does not see 35-year-old bin Salman as his counterpart and will instead have relationships through his aging father, King Salman. The younger bin Salman has been the public face of the kingdom since he became crown prince in 2017.

Robert Mahoney, Deputy Executive Director of the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, speaks during a press conference to appeal to the United Nations on the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the United Nations in New York, United States on October 18, 2018.

Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

“Regarding Saudi Arabia, I would say that we made it clear from the start that we would recalibrate our relationship with Saudi Arabia,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday from the White House.

On Thursday, in his first conversation with the 85-year-old King, Biden reiterated “the importance the United States attaches to universal human rights and the rule of law,” according to a White House ad.

Biden also told Salman that he “will work to make bilateral relations as strong and transparent as possible,” the White House said. Khashoggi’s name was not mentioned in the advertisement.

The chairman of the Intel Committee of the House of Representatives, Rep. Adam Schiff, called on the White House to impose “serious repercussions on those responsible for Khashoggi’s assassination” and to reassess US relations with Saudi Arabia in the course of the intelligence service Report.

“We need to make sure that foreign governments targeting journalists just for their jobs are not immune from severe repercussions and sanctions, because to restore confidence in American leadership we must act in accordance with the values ​​that America sets.” for a long time, “said the Californian Democrat.

“The government should take further steps to reduce the United States’ dependence on Riyadh and reaffirm that our partnership with the Kingdom is not a blank check,” added Schiff.

The Saudi authorities initially denied any knowledge of Khashoggi’s death and later claimed that the journalist was involved in a fight at the consulate and died in the clash. The Saudi authorities eventually admitted that Khashoggi was killed in a “rogue operation” while denying bin Salman was involved.

A United Nations investigator concluded in a June 2019 report that Khashoggi was “the victim of a premeditated, premeditated execution, an extrajudicial killing for which the state of Saudi Arabia is responsible under international human rights law.”

Trump publicly tried to cast doubts about the Crown Prince’s involvement in Khashoggi’s death, even after multiple outlets reported that the CIA bin Salman itself had concluded that the journalist had been killed. Trump said the CIA had “nothing in particular” while claiming the oil-rich kingdom would remain a “steadfast partner” with the US

“It could very well be that the Crown Prince was aware of this tragic event – maybe he did it and maybe he didn’t!” Trump said less than two months after Khashoggi’s death. Trump’s conciliatory stance contrasted sharply with outrage from members of Congress and the media over the Khashoggi assassination.

The Trump administration maintained relationships through the Crown Prince, who maintained close personal relationships with members of the Trump family, particularly Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump.

Trump made Saudi Arabia his first stop in the Middle East when he made his debut in the region in 2017. The kingdom rolled out the red carpet for the former reality star.

The Trump administration used its ties with the Gulf monarchies to normalize relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The former president also vetoed attempts by Congress to block billions in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and an attempt to end US involvement in the war in Yemen.

Biden’s review of relations with Saudi Arabia is part of a broader US foreign policy shift in the Middle East.
The president has ended US support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen and is trying to return to the negotiating table with Iran, Riyadh’s enemy, through its nuclear program.

The US president called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, his first conversation with a Middle Eastern leader since taking office. The Saudis and Israelis are de facto allies, although they do not have formal diplomatic ties to counter Iranian influence in the region.

Biden “discussed regional security” in his appeal Thursday with King Salman, referring to his government’s efforts to end the war in Yemen “and the US commitment to help Saudi Arabia defend its territory since it did Exposed to attacks by Iranian-centric groups, “the White House ad said.

Biden and Salman “also affirmed the historical nature of the relationship and agreed to work together on issues of mutual interest and concern,” according to the White House.

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Business

Ford, IBM, Intel and Seagate

Ford, IBM, Intel and Seagate

The IBM logo is displayed on a smartphone.

Rafael Henrique | SOPA Pictures | LightRocket | Getty Images

Check out the companies that are making headlines in midday trading.

Ford – The US automaker’s shares fell about 1%, pulling back from an all-time high in the previous session. The stock rose 6.2% on Thursday after Deutsche Bank and Barclays issued positive comments on Ford’s product plans and reported fourth quarter results on February 4. JPMorgan overweighted Ford from equilibrium to Ford on Friday. The stock gained more than 16% this week, making it its best week since June.

IBM – IBM stocks fell 10% after earnings report, which saw revenue decline more than analysts’ expectations. According to Refinitiv, IBM had fourth-quarter revenue of $ 20.37 billion, missing estimates of $ 20.67 billion. However, the result exceeded estimates.

Intel – The chipmaker’s shares fell more than 8% despite the company’s better-than-expected fourth-quarter results. Intel had adjusted earnings per share of $ 1.52 on revenue of $ 20 billion, beating Wall Street’s expectations of $ 1.10 per share and $ 17.49 billion in revenue, according to Refinitiv . Part of the stock price decline was the reverse of a surge in Thursday’s late session that followed an early release of Intel’s results.

CSX Corp. The railroad company’s shares were down more than 2% despite CSX beating revenue and earnings estimates in the fourth quarter. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $ 1.04, 3 cents above consensus guidance. FactSet estimates that sales were $ 2.83 billion, above the expected $ 2.77 billion.

Seagate Technology – Seagate shares fell nearly 6% despite decent mid-day earnings results. The downward pressure is also likely due to the already high expectations analysts and investors had of the company prior to the quarterly report. Wedbush analyst Matt Bryson wrote on Friday morning: “Without a clear driver for short-term upside moves or the certainty of longer-term technological advantage, we maintain our neutral view of the name.”

PPG Industries – The paint maker’s stock also fell in mid-day trading, despite earnings and sales beating expectations for the fourth quarter. Sam Hudson, an analyst at Atlantic Equities, noted that the company had failed to provide guidance for fiscal 2021 and wrote that a recent rise in raw material costs could affect second quarter results.

– CNBC’s Pippa Stevens, Yun Li, Maggie Fitzgerald and Jesse Pound contributed to the coverage

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World News

Intel (INTC) earnings This fall 2020

Intel (INTC) earnings Q4 2020

Bob Swan, then Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Intel Corp., reacts during the inauguration of the company’s research and development facility in Bengaluru, India, on November 15, 2018.

Samyukta Lakshmi | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Pat Gelsinger, Intel’s new CEO, said Thursday that the company’s troubled 7-nanometer chip manufacturing technique is on track to make chips sold in 2023.

However, he warned that Intel is likely to be outsourcing more and more chips to outside foundries.

The remarks came in a earnings call with analysts covering the quarter ended last December. It’s the last full quarter under CEO Bob Swan before Gelsinger takes over on February 15.

Intel stock closed 6.46% on Thursday after the chipmaker reported earnings and sales that exceeded investor expectations and its own forecast, driven by strong PC sales. However, details of Intel’s earnings were released on financial cables minutes before trading closed. After that, Intel gave up its profits and the stock fell.

Here’s how Intel did it:

  • Earnings per share (EPS): Adjusted for $ 1.52 versus $ 1.10 expected based on refinitive consensus estimates.
  • Revenue: $ 20 billion versus $ 17.49 billion expected by refinitive consensus estimates.
  • forecast: Revenue for the first quarter of 2020 of $ 18.6 billion and earnings per share of $ 1.03.

“I am pleased with the progress made in the health and recovery of the 7 nanometer program,” said Gelsinger. “I am confident that the majority of our 2023 products will be manufactured in-house. Given the breadth of our portfolio, it is likely that we will expand the use of external foundries for certain technologies and products.”

Intel’s troubled 7-nanometer technology has weighed on the company as it struggled to match the advances made by Asian chipmakers in chip manufacturing. Intel has both designed and manufactured its processors in the past. Competitors like AMD today typically use outside foundries to manufacture their designs.

Intel’s latest chips use a 14-nanometer or 10-nanometer process, while competing chips made by outside foundries like TSMC and Samsung currently use a 5-nanometer process. A smaller process is better because more transistors can fit in the same chip, increasing performance and efficiency, and creating a superior processor.

In December, activist hedge fund Third Point and its CEO Dan Loeb said in a letter to Intel’s board that the lag behind competitors was a critical vulnerability. He said Intel has fallen behind Asian chip foundries and urged Intel’s board of directors to make various changes to the company, including considering whether to outsource chip production or divest parts of the business such as acquisitions.

Intel customers like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft have developed their own processors or have signaled that they intend to.

In the quarter ended December, Intel announced that the strength of PC sales helped it exceed expectations. It has been said that 33% more PCs with Intel chips were sold than at the same time last year, especially laptops. PC sales have been strong over the past year as people who work from home or go to school try to update their computers.

Intel increased its cash dividend 5% to $ 1.39 per share. However, the forecasts for revenue, earnings per share and operating margin for the first quarter were all lower than last year.

Revenue for the Intel data center group, which sells chips to companies that operate servers, declined 16% year over year for the quarter ended December.

Mobileye, its self-driving auto technology subsidiary, posted a 39% increase in revenue for the quarter year over year, according to Intel. Mobileye is still a small part of Intel, however – it had sales of $ 967 million in 2020, while Intel’s PC group had sales of $ 40.1 billion over the year.

Gelsinger, who most recently was CEO of VMWare, has a technical background and started his career at Intel. He is expected to push Intel to become more competitive in terms of chip manufacturing. Intel announced that it began manufacturing 10-nanometer chips during the quarter and that production will continue to increase this quarter.

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World News

Intel falls on report Microsoft will design personal chips for PCs, servers

Intel falls on report Microsoft will design own chips for PCs, servers

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft Corp., speaks during the company’s annual general meeting on November 29, 2017 in Bellevue, Washington.

David Ryder | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Intel fell 6.3% on Friday after Bloomberg reported that Microsoft plans to develop its own chips, possibly for both its Surface PCs and servers.

Intel is known to have a longstanding partnership with Microsoft as the primary processor manufacturer for Windows PCs.

“Since silicon is a fundamental building block for technology, we continue to invest in our own capabilities in areas such as design, manufacture and tools and promote and strengthen partnerships with a large number of chip providers,” said Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw in a statement.

The report comes a month after Apple started selling PCs with its own M1 processor instead of Intel chips. The Microsoft chips are reportedly based on Arm’s technology, which Nvidia is currently acquiring from Softbank.

Apple’s chips for its iPhones and Amazon server chips are also based on Arm’s instruction set, which differs from the x86 technology mainly used by Intel. According to Bloomberg, Microsoft is more likely to use its chips for servers than for its Surface PCs.

Earlier this month, a senior Microsoft executive didn’t reject the idea that Microsoft would build its own “first party” chips at a conference.

“The partnerships we have in this area, from the OpenAI efforts we have to our relationship with Intel and Arm developments, we certainly point out the need for advanced capabilities here, regardless whether we are building them as a first-party provider or have an ecosystem. This is not yet known by third-party partners, “said Judson Althoff, executive vice president of global retail at Microsoft, during an appearance at UBS Global, Technology, Media and Telecommunications conference on December 8th.

Windows currently runs on Arm-based PCs, usually with chips from Qualcomm. Microsoft introduced the Surface RT tablet in 2012, which contained an arm chip from Nvidia, although the device was discontinued in 2013. Last year, it introduced the Surface Pro X with a Qualcomm arm chip and brought out an updated version of the device this year.

Microsoft announced in 2017 that it was working with Arm server manufacturers to optimize silicon for use in its own data centers.

Intel reported $ 9.85 billion in revenue for its group, which sells PC chips, for the quarter through September. Server chips are also an important business for Intel. For the quarter ended September, Intel reported sales of $ 5.91 billion for its data center group, which sells server chips.

Intel has had problems manufacturing its chips in recent years. Intel controls its own chip factories, known as “fabs”, compared to other chip designers who contract with companies in Asia to make chips to customer specifications.

The more transistors a chip manufacturer can fit in the same space, the more efficient a chip is. Currently, Intel ships chips with 10-nanometer transistors, but special foundries like TSMC are now making 5-nanometer chips that are technically superior.

Earlier this year, Intel CEO Bob Swan said he was considering outsourcing its manufacturing, like Apple is doing.

Intel did not immediately return a request for comment.

– Jordan Novet contributed to this story.