Intel Foundry’s getting bigger, but still burns cash

Growth, meet the bill

Intel Foundry finally has a stat worth bragging about: revenue climbed 31% year over year to $5.8 billion in the second quarter. That’s the kind of number that makes a turnaround pitch sound less like wishful thinking and more like, well, a business.

But the burn is still real

Here’s the catch: the foundry arm still lost $2.1 billion operating in the quarter. That’s narrower than the $3.2 billion loss a year earlier, so yes, the direction is better. But when a business is growing fast and still bleeding billions, you don’t exactly pop champagne.

Why investors should care

For Intel, this is the classic “progress, but at what price?” story. Foundry is supposed to be a future growth engine, but it also needs to prove it can scale without turning the balance sheet into a stress ball.

• Revenue is moving in the right direction.
• Losses are shrinking, but they’re still huge.
• The big question is whether Intel can keep the momentum going without the cash drain becoming the main character.

Big picture: Intel Foundry is looking more like a real business and less like a PowerPoint dream. The problem? It’s still very much in the expensive adolescence stage.