$INTC An analyst expressed clear skepticism about management's explanation of supply constraints as an "inventory structure issue": The analyst stated: "I'd like to ask another question. You have your own wafer fabs, so why are you in this inventory situation? Even if you differentiate between finished products and other components, I understand the logic, but you currently have $11.6 billion in inventory on your books, yet you still haven't placed the inventory in the right place at the right time. How did this happen?" The CFO stated that the company misjudged the demand from the data center business; despite Intel having its own wafer fabs, the shift by hyperscalers still caught them off guard. He stated: "We did expect the core count to continue increasing, but we didn't expect the units shipped to increase… However, in the third and fourth quarters, the units shipped climbed rapidly."

It sounds like $INTC is going to drop 😧