Global artificial intelligence sentiment received a booster shot as struggling American chipmaker Intel reported a better-than-expected sales forecast.

California-based Intel, which surged almost 25% higher in pre-market trading, revealed a sales forecast of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion in the June quarter, exceeding Wall Street expectations of $13 billion, Bloomberg reported last night.

Even Finland’s OMX Helsinki 25 index rose 0.83% to 6,271.70 in morning trading despite no direct impact from Intel’s projected expanding sales.

Global investors welcomed the chipmaker’s comeback after a multi-year decline in profitability, which made it even post a net loss in 2025 despite the booming AI industry. The expected reversal uplifted even other semiconductor companies, such as Taiwan-based TSMC, which jumped over 7% amid the festive sentiment today.

Chief Executive Lip Bu Tan commented on the turnaround. “There is huge demand,” he said. “We are working very hard with our team to make sure we deliver.”

Tan, who started in his role in 2025, expects the strong demand for AI processors used to expand and said Intel is “laser-focused” on increasing output. 

Intel added that second-quarter earnings will be about 20 cents a share, excluding some items. That is more than double the Wall Street prediction of 9 cents.

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Business

Intel’s expected turnaround fuels global AI optimism 

Intel’s expected turnaround fuels global AI optimism 

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5 min read

Global artificial intelligence sentiment received a booster shot as struggling American chipmaker Intel reported a better-than-expected sales forecast.

California-based Intel, which surged almost 25% higher in pre-market trading, revealed a sales forecast of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion in the June quarter, exceeding Wall Street expectations of $13 billion, Bloomberg reported last night.

Even Finland’s OMX Helsinki 25 index rose 0.83% to 6,271.70 in morning trading despite no direct impact from Intel’s projected expanding sales.

Global investors welcomed the chipmaker’s comeback after a multi-year decline in profitability, which made it even post a net loss in 2025 despite the booming AI industry. The expected reversal uplifted even other semiconductor companies, such as Taiwan-based TSMC, which jumped over 7% amid the festive sentiment today.

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Chief Executive Lip Bu Tan commented on the turnaround. “There is huge demand,” he said. “We are working very hard with our team to make sure we deliver.”

Tan, who started in his role in 2025, expects the strong demand for AI processors used to expand and said Intel is “laser-focused” on increasing output. 

Intel added that second-quarter earnings will be about 20 cents a share, excluding some items. That is more than double the Wall Street prediction of 9 cents.

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Authors

Emmi Laine is head of business content at Listeds and our lead for finance and business coverage. She sets the editorial agenda, interviews Nordic business leaders, and writes stories, newsletters, and social content on timely market and corporate topics. Emmi brings nearly eight years of experience from Shanghai's Yicai Global / Yicai Media Group, where she was awarded for reporting on China’s economy, finance sector, and technology innovation. She holds an MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from ESADE Business School in Barcelona and a Master’s degree in International Design Business Management from Aalto University. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Culture Studies with a major in Journalism from Stockholm University and has studied Mandarin Chinese and Chinese culture. Emmi is a Finnish citizen and has lived in Finland, Sweden, China, and Portugal.

Emmi Laine is head of business content at Listeds and our lead for finance and business coverage. She sets the editorial agenda, interviews Nordic business leaders, and writes stories, newsletters, and social content on timely market and corporate topics. Emmi brings nearly eight years of experience from Shanghai's Yicai Global / Yicai Media Group, where she was awarded for reporting on China’s economy, finance sector, and technology innovation. She holds an MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from ESADE Business School in Barcelona and a Master’s degree in International Design Business Management from Aalto University. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Culture Studies with a major in Journalism from Stockholm University and has studied Mandarin Chinese and Chinese culture. Emmi is a Finnish citizen and has lived in Finland, Sweden, China, and Portugal.

Authors

Journalist

Emmi Laine is head of business content at Listeds and our lead for finance and business coverage. She sets the editorial agenda, interviews Nordic business leaders, and writes stories, newsletters, and social content on timely market and corporate topics. Emmi brings nearly eight years of experience from Shanghai's Yicai Global / Yicai Media Group, where she was awarded for reporting on China’s economy, finance sector, and technology innovation. She holds an MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from ESADE Business School in Barcelona and a Master’s degree in International Design Business Management from Aalto University. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Culture Studies with a major in Journalism from Stockholm University and has studied Mandarin Chinese and Chinese culture. Emmi is a Finnish citizen and has lived in Finland, Sweden, China, and Portugal.

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21 September 2026

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Market Signals

Oura's board is being built for Nasdaq: prospectus reveals $1.21bn in nine-month revenue and four US-market directors

Sep 4, 2026

Oura has filed publicly for a Nasdaq listing in the United States and, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, intends to list during September. The Finnish smart ring maker submitted a confidential filing in May. The prospectus arrives with a board reshaped for US public markets, and a Nordic presence now outnumbered on it.

The prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows revenue of $1.21 billion for the nine months ended 30 June 2026, the first three quarters of a fiscal year that ends 30 September, against $697.6 million in the same period a year earlier, a rise of 74%. Full-year FY2025 revenue was $907.9 million, against $406.8 million the year before. The net loss attributable to common shareholders over the same nine months was $924.3 million, compared with $182.8 million a year earlier.

Oura shipped 3.1 million rings in the nine-month period, against 1.8 million a year earlier. Membership revenue reached $240.5 million, up 121%, and paid members doubled to 5 million, the recurring line that will matter most to public-market investors, and the one that turns a hardware company into a subscription business.

The headline loss sits beneath a $985m deemed dividend

Before the deemed dividend attached to preferred shares, Oura's net result for the period was a profit of $60.8 million, against $1.6 million a year earlier. The $924.3 million figure emerges after a $985 million deemed dividend to holders of redeemable convertible preferred shares is deducted. The comparable deemed dividend a year earlier was $184.4 million.

Oura raised more than $1.2 billion privately before this filing. A Fidelity-led round in October 2025 valued the company at $11 billion. The listing could raise up to $3 billion for the company and some of its backers at a valuation exceeding $16 billion, Bloomberg reported on 24 August 2026, a repricing of roughly 45% in under a year. 

The new board adds Robinhood's IPO-era CFO and Wolt's founder

Oura said on 2 September that it will appoint Jason Warnick, Leslie Kilgore, Miki Kuusi and David Sze as directors.

Warnick spent seven years as chief financial officer of Robinhood, where he helped take the company public and through its subsequent life as a listed business. He retired from the role earlier this year and was succeeded by Shiv Verma. Before that he spent nearly two decades at Amazon across finance, investor relations, audit and enterprise risk, and began his career as a CPA at Deloitte & Touche.

Kilgore sits on the boards of Netflix and Pinterest, and has previously served on those of LinkedIn, Medallia and Nextdoor. She was chief marketing officer at Netflix, and held earlier positions at Amazon, Procter & Gamble and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Kuusi co-founded Wolt and led it as chief executive from 2014 until DoorDash acquired the company in 2022. He now oversees DoorDash's international business and serves as chief executive of London-based Deliveroo. 

Sze is a partner at Greylock Partners, where he led investments in Facebook, LinkedIn, Roblox and Pandora. He previously held senior operating roles at Excite and Excite@Home.

The four join Timo Ahopelto, Dennis Durkin, chief executive Tom Hale, Wen Hsieh, Eurie Kim and chairman David Shuman on the board.

"Adding Jason, Leslie, Miki, and David strengthens our board with leaders who know what it takes to build and scale category-defining global businesses," Hale said in the company's statement.

What the appointments say about where Oura's governance now sits

The appointments describe a specific destination. Warnick is a CFO who has already run a listing and the quarterly reporting cycle that follows it. Kilgore brings the consumer-brand seat that US public boards expect. Sze holds an investor seat. None of the three has a Nordic mandate.

That leaves a ten-person board on which Ahopelto and Kuusi are the Nordic voices, at a company founded in Oulu that will report as a US filer under SEC rules rather than the Finnish Corporate Governance Code. For Nordic investors, Oura is on the way to becoming a company you can read about but not vote on in Helsinki, the governance follows the listing venue, and the listing venue is Nasdaq.

Oura is not leaving Finland. The engineers stay, the product stays. What moves is the register, the governance regime and the venue where the company answers for itself. IQM proved that part is a choice, it took both listings. Oura’s prospectus takes one.

Market Signals

Two Helsinki demergers are locked in, a third is under review

Sep 4, 2026

UPM's shareholders approved the WISA Group separation on 31 August. Aspo votes on 7 December. Valmet has not yet approved a plan.

UPM-Kymmene's extraordinary general meeting approved the demerger of its Plywood business on 31 August 2026, seating the board of the new company at the same meeting. WISA Group Plc is expected to complete on or about 31 October and start trading on Nasdaq Helsinki on 2 November. UPM shareholders receive one WISA share for each UPM share held; the Finnish Tax Administration has ruled the demerger tax-neutral, and the Financial Supervisory Authority approved the listing prospectus in July and a supplement in August.

Aspo's board approved its own demerger plan on 3 August 2026. ESL Shipping moves into ESL Shipping Group Plc and the continuing company was renamed Telko Group Plc, on the same one-for-one basis. The extraordinary general meeting is set for 7 December, completion for 31 December, and trading in ESL Shipping Group shares for on or about 4 January 2027. A separate share exchange folds Lighthouse HoldCo's 21.4% direct stake in ESL Shipping into the new company, after which OP Finland Infrastructure LP (about 14.3%) and Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company (about 10.7%) are expected to be its two largest shareholders.

Valmet is furthest from a vote. Its board announced on 24 July 2026 that it would review separating Biomaterial Solutions and Services from Process Performance Solutions into two listed companies. No plan has been approved. An update is due no later than the full-year 2026 results. 

Where the three stand


UPM → WISA Group

Aspo → ESL Shipping Group / Telko Group

Valmet

Stage

Approved by EGM, 31 Aug 2026

Plan approved by board, 3 Aug 2026

Strategic review only

Shareholder vote

Done

7 Dec 2026

None scheduled

Completion

On or about 31 Oct 2026

31 Dec 2026

Not set

First trading day

2 Nov 2026

On or about 4 Jan 2027

Not set

CEO of new company

Tuija Suur-Hamari

Matti-Mikael Koskinen (ESL Shipping Group); Telko Group not disclosed

Not disclosed

Chair

Tapio Korpeinen

Rolf Jansson (ESL Shipping Group, intended)

Not disclosed

Net sales

EUR 409M plywood sales, 2025

EUR 178.4M (ESL Shipping Group) and EUR 294.6M (Telko Group), 12 months to June 2026

EUR 1.7B (Process Performance Solutions), annualised

2030 target

EUR 550M+ sales, 13% comparable EBIT margin

EUR 40M+ comparable EBIT

Not set

Tax-neutral ruling

Confirmed

Confirmed

n/a

The numbers behind WISA

WISA will operate seven production units across five locations in Finland and Estonia, with capacity of around 785,000 cubic metres a year. Plywood sales were EUR 409 million in 2025 on EUR 55 million of comparable EBITDA, against a 2030 target of more than EUR 550 million in sales and a 13% comparable EBIT margin, with a dividend policy of roughly half of annual profit.

The 31 August meeting also elected WISA's board — Tapio Korpeinen as chair, Mats Nordlander as deputy chair, and Sakari Ahdekivi, Frank Herrmann, Nina Kiviranta and Emmanuelle Picard, each serving until WISA's first annual general meeting. 

Valmet itself demerged from Metso in 2013.

The leadership consequences of these three transactions are covered separately by Listeds in  Two new listed CEOs, no search, no external hire: two new listed-CEO seats created without a search, filled from inside the parent, against a Large Cap tier that recorded no CEO change in the first half of 2026.

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