Intel Post Best Earnings Ever

Executives said that Intel's business was being driven by emerging markets just as China, the consumer side of the market, and "the build out of the cloud" to add muscle to data centers to handle online services and software.

The stand-out

"The stand-out was the data center group," Otellini said of the company's performance. "Intel is positioned to benefit from the growth of the data center and cloud computing."

Intel projected revenue of $11.5 billion for the current quarter and said that it expected to spend near $14 billion this year on researching and developing products and acquisitions or mergers.

Otellini promised that Intel's Atom chips would be seen in an array of tablets and smartphones hitting the market, which is rich in gadgets built with rival ARM processor innovation.