Intel stock jumped 2.5% yesterday, rebounding to $48.29 after a sharp 6% decline that left investors scrambling to understand what’s happening with the chipmaker. News of a major AI investment and an earnings beat drove the recovery, but the rally comes as analysts remain split on whether Intel can overcome its foundry struggles and catch up in the AI race. With Intel stock drops becoming more frequent and execution risks mounting, investors are asking why Intel is up today—and whether this bounce signals genuine progress or just another fleeting moment of optimism.
Shares traded as high as $49.55 during the session, with approximately 106.7 million shares changing hands. This marks a 22% decline from the average daily volume, suggesting the move wasn’t accompanied by overwhelming conviction from traders.
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Why Intel Is Up Today Despite Stock Drops And Ongoing Problems
What’s Driving The Intel Stock Jumps
The rally was triggered by the fact that Intel had spent at least $100 million into SambaNova, a company that specializes in AI software platform, according to reports by Wedbush. The move is among the many efforts by Intel to expedite its AI stack and collaborate with the key ecosystem players. Another development has been reported by Intel, the Saimemory project, in which it announced a new ZAM prototype, indicating progress in the area of memory and AI-hardware development-a practical development that is being considered by some investors as a sign that the product roadmap is evolving despite the continued execution issues.
The chipmaker surpassed the estimates in the quarterly earnings reporting a figure of 0.15 per share instead of $0.08 of the consensus and revenue per share of $13.67 billion vs. $13.37 billion of expectations. However, revenue declined by 4.2 percent year on year. CFO David Zinsser bought 5,882 shares at a price of $42.50 each on January 26th immediately after a fall in Intel stocks made the shares plunge, and analysts in the stock market see this insider buying as an assurance that the company has more to gain in the long run.
CFO David Zinsner stated:
“Once we get them, we’re gonna need to start really spending capital on the 14A front, and that’s how you’ll know.”
Why Intel Stock Problems Overshadow The Gains
Despite the bounce explaining why Intel is up today, the Intel stock forecast remains muted among Wall Street analysts. The consensus rating sits at “Reduce” with an average price target of $45.76—below where shares currently trade. The breakdown shows five Buy ratings, twenty-five Hold ratings, and six Sell ratings.
The core Intel stock problems stem from foundry struggles plaguing the company. Intel’s foundries suffered $12 billion in losses from 2021-2023, and current yields sit at just 55-65% versus the 80-90% industry standard. CFO David Zinsner admitted on the earnings call that the company doesn’t have capacity to meet current demand due to what executives described as “acute internal supply constraints,” which will lead to depressed sales and earnings in coming months.
Intel stock drops have become frequent as the company battles to catch up with competitors like AMD and Nvidia. While Nvidia’s shares surged 1,160% over five years, the Intel stock forecast shows Intel fell 20.25% during the same period. The company has committed roughly $100 billion to foundry projects, yet questions remain about execution and profitability.
Citic Securities upgraded Intel from “hold” to “buy” on January 26th, raising their price target from $38.90 to $60.30. However, J.P. Morgan analyst Harlan Sur issued a sell rating with a $35 target, implying 25.74% downside. This split reflects the uncertainty around Intel’s turnaround.
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What the Intel Stock Forecast Looks Like
The stock trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of -603.55, with a negative net margin of 0.51% and negative return on equity of 0.44%. Market cap stands at $241.21 billion.
Intel did not fully capitalise on the AI revolution that took Nvidia to the top of the tech industry as the most valuable company. Intel Gaudi 3 AI accelerators had software bugs that slowed down the company at the beginning of the AI wave, and Nvidia GPUs became the standard to train AI models. Nvidia has been assigned a weighting of 13.48 per cent in the Nasdaq 100 list and Intel has been classified to 0.69 per cent; this is how far Intel has been lagging.
The issue of yield with Intel specialized 18A chips is especially of concern to the Intel stock forecast. Intel is already producing defective chip and wasting money rather than earning money. The company will need to be competitive with Taiwan based TSMC, which manufactures more than 90 percent of all high-end AI chips, and this will need a perfect execution and large yield gains.
Wall Street’s overall Intel stock forecast shows a slight 2.52% upside with a target price of $48.32, slightly higher compared to current levels. The next earnings report of Intel is on April 23rd and the investors will be keen to evaluate whether the company is on the way to go or still hanging on the Intel stock issues that have characterized the past few years. The recent volatility reflects this uncertainty. Intel has been underperforming the S&P 500 in any downturn in the market and it has not regained its 2022 high of $68.26 or its pre-COVID high of $68.47.
