Why Investors Should Be Eying Intel

Excluding items, Intel's gross margin was 64.4% during its second quarter.

Despite a fickle economy and increasing competition from design rival ARM Holdings(ARMH) , Intel also enjoyed growth in its key PC and data center businesses during the second quarter, highlighting the firm's ongoing competitive strength.

Intel's Data Center Group, which provides chips for servers, saw its revenue climb 14% sequentially to $2.8 billion, while its PC Client Group revenue grew 3% to $8.7 billion.

Also on the conference call, Otellini said that volume growth, combined with a rich mix of products, drove record server revenue. Data Center Group sales grew 15% year-over-year, he added.

Despite recent concerns over the impact of a slowing PC market, analysts still see plenty of growth catalysts looming on the horizon.

In particular, Intel could receive a boost from Microsoft's(MSFT) Windows 8 operating system when it launches later this year, tablets, and Ultrabooks, the new category of super-skinny laptops championed by the chip giant.