The data center is giving Intel what it wanted — a growing business to offset PCs — but the company is temporarily trimming its expectations for the sector.

Intel reported yesterday that data center revenues for the third quarter were $4.1 billion — an all-time high and up 12 percent from a year ago. But Intel's forecast for data center business dipped to low double digits, as opposed to the 15 percent the company had previously cited.

"Relative to our forecast at the beginning of the year, we are seeing a weaker enterprise segment being partially offset by a stronger than expected cloud segment," CFO Stacy Smith said on yesterday's earnings call.

It's a temporary thing. In the long term, Intel thinks its data center business can sustain "mid-teens" growth, Smith said later during the call.

As PC sales shrink, Intel is successfully leaning on the data center, the Internet of Things, and memory devices. Those businesses combined to account for 40 percent of Intel's revenues in the third quarter.

Other prospects for the data center include FPGAs, through Intel's pending acquisition of Altera, and silicon photonics, which Smith indicated could be a factor next year.

Intel reported third-quarter revenues of $14.5 billion and net income of $3.1 billion, or 64 cents per share. For the same quarter last year, Intel reported revenues of $14.6 billion and net income of $3.3 billion, or 66 cents per share.

For the fourth quarter, Intel is forecasting revenues of $14.3 billion to $15.3 billion.

Intel shares traded down 2 percent at $31.29 in after-hours trading yesterday.