Tech giants post upbeat financials

Intel reported strong demand for processors in the quarter, with a nine percent increase in revenue to US$9.67 billion and profits of US$1.4 billion.

The chip giant raised its forecast for gross margins for the year, thanks in part to sustained technical advances in 45nm manufacturing.

Intel chief executive Paul Otellini said in a conference call that the company's geographic reach had helped it benefit from a "strong global environment" boosted by positive sales in Asia.

IBM raised its own profit forecast for the year after posting net profits of US$2.32 billion, an increase of 26 percent from the 2007 period.

Mark Loughridge, chief financial officer at IBM, attributed the better than expected earnings to the use of cost-savings products in the US, as well as help from the weak dollar.

Google easily beat analyst expectations with net profits of US$1.31 billion, an increase of US$1 billion from a year earlier. Revenues for the quarter increased to US$3.7 billion from US$3.61 billion.

However, the week ended badly for AMD, which posted net losses of US$358 million between January and March.

Industry watchers pointed to the late arrival of the company's much anticipated quad-core Opteron processor line up as a contributing factor.

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