{"id":625854,"date":"2026-04-24T16:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T16:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/625854\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T16:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T16:06:07","slug":"intel-soars-on-signs-ai-boom-for-cpus-is-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/625854\/","title":{"rendered":"Intel soars on signs AI boom for CPUs is here"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demand for Intel\u2019s (INTC-Q<\/a>) \u00a0central processors from firms offering AI \u200bservices was so strong in the first \u200cquarter that it sold even chips it had originally written off, a remarkable turnaround that sent the company\u2019s shares soaring on Friday.<\/p>\n

The stock surged more than 24 per cent to US$83 in early \u2060trading, surpassing \u200bits dot-com era peak in 2000 and taking the company\u2019s market value above US$416-billion.<\/p>\n

Rival AMD and Arm also gained more than 11 per cent each on growing conviction that inference – the process by which artificial intelligence answers user queries – could restore central \u200bprocessing units to the heart of the industry \u200cafter years of being eclipsed by graphics chips used in AI training.<\/p>\n

Nvidia, the graphics chip giant that has dominated the AI boom, has also sensed the shift and braced for greater competition. It unveiled last month a new central processor, a rare move into territory it had \u200clong ceded \u200bto rivals.<\/p>\n

Its shares were \u200cup more than 1 per cent on Friday.<\/p>\n

At least 23 brokerages raised their price targets on \u200bIntel\u2019s stock following the better-than-expected first-quarter results and \u2060a sales forecast above estimates, with HSBC pointing to growing demand for \u2060Intel\u2019s Xeon server CPUs used in AI data centers.<\/p>\n

The stock currently has a median price target \u200bof $75, up from $46.50 a month ago.<\/p>\n

Intel CFO David Zinsner said the forecast was partly driven by higher prices and supply was tight in the first quarter, which forced Intel to dig into finished goods inventory and sell chips it had not expected to move.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was either de-spec product or \u2060legacy product we had shelved and then we worked with customers. That helped a lot. I am not sure we have that benefit in the second quarter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Including Friday\u2019s gains, Intel shares have jumped more than 120 per cent this year, after a surge of about 84 per cent last year, as its turnaround gathers steam under \u2060CEO Lip-Bu Tan after years of missteps.<\/p>\n

It now trades \u200bat around 90 times its 12-month forward earnings estimates – its highest on record – much \u2060higher than the 37 times for AMD and 22 for Nvidia.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Intel scored a symbolic boost to \u200cits contract manufacturing ambitions by securing Tesla as a customer for its next-generation 14A chipmaking \u200bprocess tied to Elon Musk\u2019s planned Terafab AI chip complex.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the foundry business can start contributing in a meaningful way in 2027 – as expected – that should really show that the company\u2019s turnaround is complete,\u201d said Bob O\u2019Donnell, president \u200band chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demand for Intel\u2019s (INTC-Q) \u00a0central processors from firms offering AI \u200bservices was so strong in the first \u200cquarter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,901,276,277,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-625854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-alberta","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-artificialintelligence","12":"tag-arts-news","13":"tag-bc","14":"tag-breaking-news","15":"tag-breaking-news-video","16":"tag-british-columbia","17":"tag-ca","18":"tag-canada","19":"tag-canada-news","20":"tag-canada-sports","21":"tag-canada-sports-news","22":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","23":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","24":"tag-canadian-news","25":"tag-economy","26":"tag-education","27":"tag-environment","28":"tag-federal-government","29":"tag-foreign-news","30":"tag-globe-and-mail","31":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","32":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","33":"tag-government","34":"tag-life-news","35":"tag-lifestyle","36":"tag-local-news","37":"tag-manitoba","38":"tag-national-news","39":"tag-new-brunswick","40":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","41":"tag-northwest-territories","42":"tag-nova-scotia","43":"tag-nunavut","44":"tag-ontario","45":"tag-pei","46":"tag-photos","47":"tag-political-news","48":"tag-political-opinion","49":"tag-politics","50":"tag-politics-news","51":"tag-quebec","52":"tag-sports-news","53":"tag-technology","54":"tag-travel","55":"tag-trudeau","56":"tag-us-news","57":"tag-world-news","58":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}