What Happened?
Shares of computer processor maker Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) jumped 2.6% in the afternoon session after Wall Street signaled belief in the turnaround narrative, as the company received a dual vote of confidence from major analyst firms just days before its fourth-quarter earnings report.
HSBC upgraded the stock and nearly doubled its price target, driven by a fresh thesis regarding "agentic AI." The analysts argued that as artificial intelligence evolved from simple chatbots to autonomous agents, the demand for general-purpose server CPUs would skyrocket, projecting shipment growth that far exceeded earlier market consensus.
Simultaneously, Seaport Research Partners issued a buy rating, validating Intel's manufacturing roadmap. They cited the "highly performant" metrics of the new 18A process node and the competitive launch of Panther Lake processors as proof that the foundry business was no longer a liability but a burgeoning asset. These upgrades forced investors to reconsider their pessimism.
After the initial pop the shares cooled down to $48.30, up 2.7% from previous close.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Intel’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 40 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 7 days ago when the stock gained 6.2% on the news that Keybanc upgraded the stock's rating to 'Overweight' from 'Sector Weight' and set a new price target of $60.
The analyst behind the upgrade, John Vinh, cited strong server demand related to artificial intelligence as the primary reason for the more positive outlook. Demand from data centers was reportedly so high that Intel was largely sold out of its server central processing units (CPUs) for 2026. This strength in demand led the company to consider raising the average selling price of these chips by 10% to 15%. The upgrade reflected growing confidence in Intel's position to benefit from the expansion in data center computing and AI.
Intel is up 22.6% since the beginning of the year, and at $48.30 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $48.72 from January 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Intel’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $823.16.
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