Intel Shares Plunge 21% Amid Manufacturing Delays
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: 1 hour ago
0mins
Source: Fool
- 18A Manufacturing Delay: Intel's 18A manufacturing process is now projected to reach profitable yield levels only by late 2026 or 2027, significantly lowering investor expectations and contributing to a 21% stock price drop within a week.
- Intensifying Data Center Competition: In Q1 2026, AMD's data center revenue surged to $5.8 billion, a 57% year-over-year increase, while Intel's revenue reached $5.1 billion with a 22% growth, indicating a concerning loss of market share in Intel's historically strong segment.
- Sector Sentiment Decline: A warning from a major bank about bubble-like conditions in AI stocks, coupled with record profits from memory maker Samsung failing to uplift market sentiment, led to a sector-wide sell-off that erased about 20% of Intel's market value in just days.
- Uncertain Future Outlook: Although Intel's data center revenue continues to grow and its foundry business is gradually attracting external customers, the delay in the 18A process severely undermines confidence in its future profitability, with the stock still trading at over 100 times expected earnings, indicating a fragile valuation.
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Analyst Views on INTC
Wall Street analysts forecast INTC stock price to fall
29 Analyst Rating
5 Buy
19 Hold
5 Sell
Hold
Current: 110.390
Low
20.00
Averages
39.30
High
52.00
Current: 110.390
Low
20.00
Averages
39.30
High
52.00
About INTC
Intel Corporation is a global designer and manufacturer of semiconductor products. The Company's segments include Intel Products, Intel Foundry, and All Other. Its Intel Products comprise Client Computing Group (CCG) and Data Center and AI (DCAI). CCG delivers platforms and processors that power PCs and edge devices, enabling enhanced performance, connectivity and user experience for consumer and commercial markets with capabilities that also support retail, industrial robotics and AI ecosystems at the edge. DCAI delivers workload-optimized solutions based upon its x86 architecture for data centers, including CPUs, AI accelerators, NICs, IPUs and custom ASICs, enabling performance and scalability for cloud, enterprise, telecommunication and HPC environments. The Intel Foundry segment comprises technology development, manufacturing and foundry services, developing new semiconductor process technologies and advanced packaging technologies. All Other segments include Mobileye and Other.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
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See More
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- Surging Semiconductor Demand: Former Intel CEO Gelsinger stated that Intel is 'lethally positioned' to meet the growing semiconductor demand driven by artificial intelligence, which positions the company favorably in the market to address the urgent global need for chips.
- Foundry Strategy Progress: Reflecting on the foundry strategy he announced in 2021, Gelsinger emphasized that the five-year timeline is coming to fruition, indicating that the company is gradually fulfilling its technological and capital readiness, which boosts investor confidence in Intel's future.
- Government Investment Support: Gelsinger expressed that he is not opposed to the U.S. government taking a stake in Intel, viewing it as beneficial for both the company and shareholders, especially after the government acquired a 9.9% stake for $8.9 billion in 2025, leading to a 439% increase in Intel's stock price.
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See More
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- Earnings Expectations: Intel anticipates Q2 non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.20 on revenue of $14.3 billion, reflecting nearly 11% year-over-year growth, indicating a significant turnaround from last year's loss per share, which has fueled the stock's rally.
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- Market Demand: The rising demand for custom processors and server CPUs in AI data centers is accelerating Intel's earnings growth, particularly due to the favorable CPU to GPU ratio in AI applications, which may lead to additional upward momentum for the stock.
See More
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- Stable Institutional Trading: Despite the rapid decline in tech valuations, major trading desks at firms like Goldman Sachs and UBS report a calm environment devoid of panic selling, indicating that the semiconductor industry's fundamentals remain robust.
- Buy the Dip Recommendation: JPMorgan analysts suggest that investors capitalize on lower stock prices, believing that the momentum-driven sell-off may have reached its bottom, as evidenced by the recovery of shares in major chip manufacturers like Broadcom and Micron during the trading session.
- Upcoming Catalysts: South Korean memory giant SK Hynix plans to list 18 million new common shares, aiming to raise approximately $30 billion, with analysts noting that this significant listing could serve as the next directional catalyst for the market.
See More
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- Customer Base Expansion: The company now serves over 6,000 customers, including many leading AI startups and enterprises, utilizing its open superintelligence stack for compute, reinforcement learning, and post-training, indicating widespread market adoption and demand for its products.
- Revenue Growth: In less than a year, Prime Intellect has scaled to over $100 million in annualized revenue, reflecting strong demand for its offerings in AI model optimization and training, suggesting significant growth potential moving forward.
- CEO's Strategic Vision: CEO Vincent Weisser emphasized that companies can now directly optimize their models on their products, continuously improving agents in production, indicating the company's commitment to providing more efficient AI solutions and enhancing its competitive edge in the market.
See More
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- Market Access: China will allow limited purchases of Nvidia's H200 GPUs by top AI firms, which could alleviate supply shortages and support Nvidia's sales in the Chinese market despite export restrictions and domestic competition.
- Stock Price Reaction: Following the news, Nvidia shares rose approximately 2% in late morning trading on Wednesday, with investors closely monitoring whether approvals from China and new hardware partnerships can drive the company's next growth phase.
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See More
