🚧 Intel on ice

🛠️ It's Labor Day weekend. Thanks for hanging with us on this Friday afternoon. We'll be back on Tuesday.

Today's newsletter is 734 words, a 2½-minute read.

🔔 The dashboard: The S&P 500 closed up 1.0% following new inflation data.

• Biggest gainer? Intel Corp. (+9.5%), on a report suggesting a new turnaround plan could be in the works. (See more below.👇)
• Biggest decliner? Ulta Beauty (-4.0%), after the retailer cut its full-year guidance.

The latest intel on Intel is that the company is brainstorming strategic options with longtime advisers to weather a storm of losses, as first reported by Bloomberg.

Why it matters: Intel isn't just one of America's oldest chipmakers, it's also a key national security asset, slated to receive the largest parcel of federal government support as part of the CHIPS Act.

Driving the news: The company is said to be kicking around ideas with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, including a sale or spinoff of its manufacturing unit.

• It's also considering smaller moves like reining in project expansion plans, people familiar with the situation told Bloomberg.
• "We don't have a comment on this," Intel's director of corporate comms Penny Bruce says in an email to Axios on the reported talks with advisers.
• When asked whether the status of its manufacturing projects had changed, she declined to comment beyond an April 15 update.

Zoom out: Intel has been floundering for over a decade, and some of the larger options reportedly being discussed would unwind core parts of CEO Pat Gelsinger's turnaround plans centered around a recommitment to manufacturing.

The big picture: Intel reported a $1.61 billion net loss last quarter, complicating the company's ambitions to spend tens of billions on new factories to make chips for itself and outside customers.

• One problem, it's not clear whether any customers have lined up.
• Up to $8.5 billion in direct funding and up to $11 billion in loans pledged to the company through the CHIPS Act to advance manufacturing projects is dependent on the company hitting production milestones.

Intel's stock has been moving in the wrong direction. It's down nearly 60% this year and 28% just this month — failing to capture the momentum other chip stocks have enjoyed.

• It's little surprise that investors cheered today's news, driving the company's shares up 9.5%.

Go deeper

The Commerce Department this morning released data for July, indicating that personal income rose 0.3% in the month.

• At the same time, consumption spending rose 0.5%, helping the personal saving rate drop to its lowest level since June 2022.

The big picture: The fundamentals of the U.S. economy, at least as of July, looked sound. Inflation, as measured by the Fed's preferred PCE price index, was steady at 2.5% year over year, continuing its move toward the central bank's 2% target, Axios' Neil Irwin writes.

💭 Hope's thought bubble: There's always money in the banana stand, right?

🤖 Dell shares gained 4.3% after last night's earnings, which showed an 80% increase in server sales driven by AI demand. (CNBC)

😀 U.S. consumer sentiment improved in August for the first time in five months. (Bloomberg)

Join international experts and leaders at the Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy's annual FMQ Conference hosted on the Georgetown University campus on Sept. 17.

What to expect: Industry professionals will discuss pressing global financial issues.

Register today.

Elon Musk's Starlink said Brazil's top judge has issued an order that "freezes" the internet satellite business' finances in the country.

Why it matters: The order resulted from an escalating feud related to local operations of X, a separate and distinct Musk-owned business, which Brazil blocked today.

Zoom in: The freezing of Starlink's finances in the country was done to "guarantee the payment of fines" imposed by the court on X, according to the Brazilian press.

• Starlink said on X that the order was "based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines."

Context: Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued a summons on Wednesday ordering X to name a legal representative for the platform in Brazil within 24 hours or he'd have the site suspended in the country.

• Brazilian law requires social networks to have an employee in the country to field government requests to remove posts it deems as political misinformation.

Go deeper

Tens of thousands of people will watch a giant wooden figure burn to ash in the middle of a Nevada desert tomorrow.

Zoom in: Billionaires, investors and tech tycoons are typically among those gathered for the annual tradition that symbolizes self-reinvention, as Burning Man — an arts and musical festival celebrating self-expression — draws to a close this weekend.

• Over the years, the "you kind of have to be there yourself to understand" gathering has attracted Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Ray Dalio among others.

What they're saying: "Curiouser & Curiouser," taken from Alice in Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" is this year's theme — but really, it could be the theme any year.

Hope's thought bubble: It's always fun to see serious people let (very) loose.

The 2024 Financial Markets Quality Conference on Sept. 17 will feature:

• Jamie Dimon, JPMorganChase
• Nellie Liang, U.S. Department of the Treasury
• Patrick McHenry, U.S. House Financial Services Committee
• David Schwimmer, LSEG
• Rostin Behnam, U.S. CFTC, and more.

Learn more.

Today's newsletter was edited by Pete Gannon and copy edited by Sheryl Miller.

✏️ Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get Axios Closer in your inbox.