Intel boosted margins by selling chips that would normally be scrap

Intel reportedly confirmed that part of its unexpected first-quarter margin improvement came from selling chips that would normally be discarded as scrap or low-quality output. In an April 24 post on X, tech analyst Ben Bajarin said Intel's investor relations team told him customers are buying "what may have been scrap or low-expectation output" CPUs. The edge dies from silicon wafers, which typically have more defects and lower performance than center-cut dies, are being binned down to lower-tier SKUs and sold rather than discarded. Intel reported first-quarter revenue of $13.6 billion on April 23, beating expectations of $12.36 billion. Non-GAAP gross margins reached 41 percent, 650 basis points above the company's guidance of 34.5 percent. Earnings per share beat expectations The demand is being driven