WALL STREET SEES TOUGH FIGHT FOR INTEL TO REGAIN MARKET CLOUT

Intel Corp's shares fell 7% on Friday as Wall Street analysts raised concerns about how soon the chipmaker can close the gap with rivals as it spends billions of dollars to increase manufacturing, Eva Mathews and Akanksha Rana reported for Reuters.

In recent years, Intel has struggled with building new manufacturing technology causing it to fall behind rivals Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Nvidia Corp. in the race to make smaller chips with a faster processing speed.

Patrick Gelsinger, who returned to the company as CEO this year, has announced plans to spend as much as $20 billion to build two factories and open its factories to other chipmakers, and advance chip manufacturing capacity.

"There are significant issues that must be overcome if this is to be a success, with investment ahead of time and profits unlikely until after 2025 if not later," Atlantic Equities analyst Ianjit Bhatti said.

"In the near term (2-3 years), we do not believe that Intel has an answer to AMD's market share gains."

On Thursday, Intel announced its second-quarter profit forecast that fell short of analysts' average expectation. The company's Chief Financial Officer George Davis told Reuters that the lower profits were because the company was investing in ramping up its new 10-nanometer and 7-nanometer manufacturing technologies.

Gelsinger has also announced plans to make chips for car plants at its factories to help alleviate a global chip shortage that has hit the automotive industry.

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