We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience.
This includes personalizing content and advertising.
By pressing "Accept All" or closing out of this banner, you consent to the use of all cookies and similar technologies and the sharing of information they collect with third parties.
You can reject marketing cookies by pressing "Deny Optional," but we still use essential, performance, and functional cookies.
In addition, whether you "Accept All," Deny Optional," click the X or otherwise continue to use the site, you accept our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, revised from time to time.
You are being directed to ZacksTrade, a division of LBMZ Securities and licensed broker-dealer. ZacksTrade and Zacks.com are separate companies. The web link between the two companies is not a solicitation or offer to invest in a particular security or type of security. ZacksTrade does not endorse or adopt any particular investment strategy, any analyst opinion/rating/report or any approach to evaluating individual securities.
If you wish to go to ZacksTrade, click OK. If you do not, click Cancel.
Intel Rises 100.5% in a Year: Should You Invest in the Stock?
Read MoreHide Full Article
Key Takeaways
Intel stock has jumped 100.6% in a year, beating the industry and S&P 500.
Intel's data center revenues hit $4.7B, up 15% sequentially on Xeon CPU demand.
Intel faces AI competition, geopolitical risks and falling 2025-2026 earnings estimates.
Intel Corporation (INTC - Free Report) has gained 100.6% over the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 51.6%. It has outperformed compared to the Zacks Computer & Technology sector and the S&P 500.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The company has outperformed its peer, NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA - Free Report) , but underperformed Advanced Micro Devices (AMD - Free Report) . AMD has surged 103.8%, while NVIDIA has gained 55.3% during this period.
INTC Gains from AI-Related Demand, Product Innovation
Intel is benefiting from solid demand in the Data Center and AI group. The company reported the fastest sequential growth in the data center business this quarter. It reported revenues of $4.7 billion, up 15% sequentially, with an operating margin of 26.4%. The growth is primarily driven by Xeon server CPUs, which are Granite Rapids, Emerald Rapids and Sapphire Rapids. Per a report from Grand View Research, the AI infrastructure market was valued at $223.45 billion in 2024 and is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate of 30.4% by 2030. Intel, with its robust portfolio, is expected to gain from this market trend.
AI clusters require massive interconnect bandwidth. High networking demand in the AI buildouts is driving growth in the custom Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) business. The company is gaining solid traction in the hyperscaler business. Its ASIC business grew more than 50% in 2025, 26% sequentially and reached an annualized revenue run rate greater than $1 billion in the fourth quarter. Diversification beyond the Xeon business is a positive.
Its Client Computing Group is also benefiting from healthy traction in the AI pc market. AI PC shipments grew 16% year over year in the fourth quarter. Intel AI chips are now powering more than 200 notebook designs. The AI PC market is expected to grow substantially in the upcoming quarters, backed by rapid digital transformation initiatives across sectors. Intel’s leading-edge Core Ultra Series 3 processors are expected to gain from this.
INTC announced a multiyear strategic collaboration with SambaNova, a leading AI inference platform and hardware provider. The partnership is set to focus on delivering high-performance, cost-efficient AI inference solutions built around Intel Xeon-based infrastructure.
Moreover, Intel has been undertaking cost control measures and organizational simplifications to boost profitability and improve cash flow generation. In 2025, Intel generated $9.7 billion of cash from operating activities compared with $8.29 billion a year ago. It reported an adjusted free cash flow of $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter.
Stiff Competition and Trade Restrictions are Key Challenges
Intel’s Foundry business remained a drag on the top-line growth. Intel’s 18A ramp costs worsen the segment’s operating margin. Despite government funding, investment from NVIDIA, and management’s strong focus on a turnaround, ensuring profitability from this segment remains an uphill task.
Despite Intel’s growing prowess in AI inference solutions, the company faces stiff competition from NVIDIA and AMD in the AI inference domain. The NVIDIA Blackwell, H200, L40S and NVIDIA RTX offer remarkable speed and efficiency in AI inference across cloud, workstations and data centers.
AMD Instinct MI350 Series GPU, featuring powerful and power-efficient cores, has set a new benchmark in generative AI and high-performance computing in data centers. With NVIDIA’s dominance and AMD’s strong momentum, Intel faces a steep and difficult battle in the AI inference domain. The company has also been facing stiff competition from AMD in the commercial PC market.
China accounted for more than 24% of Intel's total revenues in 2025, making it the single largest market for the company after the United States. However, China's purported move to replace U.S.-made chips with domestic alternatives significantly affected its revenue prospects.
Estimate Revision Trend of INTC
Earnings estimates for Intel for 2025 have moved down 15.52% to 49 cents over the past 60 days, while the same for 2026 has declined 14.04% to 98 cents.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Key Valuation Metric for Intel
From a valuation standpoint, Intel appears to be relatively cheaper than the industry and below its mean. Going by the price/book ratio, the company's shares currently trade at 1.8 book value, lower than 26.56 of the industry average.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
End Note
Healthy traction in the data center market and growing shipments of AI PCs are the primary growth engines for the company. AI infrastructure expansion and growing AI inference workloads are expected to drive the adoption of Xeon server processors. Strong focus on innovation, efficient working capital management is expected to drive profitability and cash flow. However, the company faces stiff competition in the server, storage, commercial PC and networking markets. The negative estimate revision depicts bearish sentiments for the stock. Growing geopolitical volatility and tariff-related uncertainties remain a concern. With a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), INTC appears to be treading in the middle of the road, and new investors could be better off if they trade with caution. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Zacks' 7 Best Strong Buy Stocks (New Research Report)
Valued at $99, click below to receive our just-released report
predicting the 7 stocks that will soar highest in the coming month.
View the Zacks #1 Rank List
Image: Bigstock
Intel Rises 100.5% in a Year: Should You Invest in the Stock?
Key Takeaways
Intel Corporation (INTC - Free Report) has gained 100.6% over the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 51.6%. It has outperformed compared to the Zacks Computer & Technology sector and the S&P 500.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The company has outperformed its peer, NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA - Free Report) , but underperformed Advanced Micro Devices (AMD - Free Report) . AMD has surged 103.8%, while NVIDIA has gained 55.3% during this period.
INTC Gains from AI-Related Demand, Product Innovation
Intel is benefiting from solid demand in the Data Center and AI group. The company reported the fastest sequential growth in the data center business this quarter. It reported revenues of $4.7 billion, up 15% sequentially, with an operating margin of 26.4%. The growth is primarily driven by Xeon server CPUs, which are Granite Rapids, Emerald Rapids and Sapphire Rapids. Per a report from Grand View Research, the AI infrastructure market was valued at $223.45 billion in 2024 and is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate of 30.4% by 2030. Intel, with its robust portfolio, is expected to gain from this market trend.
AI clusters require massive interconnect bandwidth. High networking demand in the AI buildouts is driving growth in the custom Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) business. The company is gaining solid traction in the hyperscaler business. Its ASIC business grew more than 50% in 2025, 26% sequentially and reached an annualized revenue run rate greater than $1 billion in the fourth quarter. Diversification beyond the Xeon business is a positive.
Its Client Computing Group is also benefiting from healthy traction in the AI pc market. AI PC shipments grew 16% year over year in the fourth quarter. Intel AI chips are now powering more than 200 notebook designs. The AI PC market is expected to grow substantially in the upcoming quarters, backed by rapid digital transformation initiatives across sectors. Intel’s leading-edge Core Ultra Series 3 processors are expected to gain from this.
INTC announced a multiyear strategic collaboration with SambaNova, a leading AI inference platform and hardware provider. The partnership is set to focus on delivering high-performance, cost-efficient AI inference solutions built around Intel Xeon-based infrastructure.
Moreover, Intel has been undertaking cost control measures and organizational simplifications to boost profitability and improve cash flow generation. In 2025, Intel generated $9.7 billion of cash from operating activities compared with $8.29 billion a year ago. It reported an adjusted free cash flow of $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter.
Stiff Competition and Trade Restrictions are Key Challenges
Intel’s Foundry business remained a drag on the top-line growth. Intel’s 18A ramp costs worsen the segment’s operating margin. Despite government funding, investment from NVIDIA, and management’s strong focus on a turnaround, ensuring profitability from this segment remains an uphill task.
Despite Intel’s growing prowess in AI inference solutions, the company faces stiff competition from NVIDIA and AMD in the AI inference domain. The NVIDIA Blackwell, H200, L40S and NVIDIA RTX offer remarkable speed and efficiency in AI inference across cloud, workstations and data centers.
AMD Instinct MI350 Series GPU, featuring powerful and power-efficient cores, has set a new benchmark in generative AI and high-performance computing in data centers. With NVIDIA’s dominance and AMD’s strong momentum, Intel faces a steep and difficult battle in the AI inference domain. The company has also been facing stiff competition from AMD in the commercial PC market.
China accounted for more than 24% of Intel's total revenues in 2025, making it the single largest market for the company after the United States. However, China's purported move to replace U.S.-made chips with domestic alternatives significantly affected its revenue prospects.
Estimate Revision Trend of INTC
Earnings estimates for Intel for 2025 have moved down 15.52% to 49 cents over the past 60 days, while the same for 2026 has declined 14.04% to 98 cents.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Key Valuation Metric for Intel
From a valuation standpoint, Intel appears to be relatively cheaper than the industry and below its mean. Going by the price/book ratio, the company's shares currently trade at 1.8 book value, lower than 26.56 of the industry average.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
End Note
Healthy traction in the data center market and growing shipments of AI PCs are the primary growth engines for the company. AI infrastructure expansion and growing AI inference workloads are expected to drive the adoption of Xeon server processors. Strong focus on innovation, efficient working capital management is expected to drive profitability and cash flow. However, the company faces stiff competition in the server, storage, commercial PC and networking markets. The negative estimate revision depicts bearish sentiments for the stock. Growing geopolitical volatility and tariff-related uncertainties remain a concern. With a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), INTC appears to be treading in the middle of the road, and new investors could be better off if they trade with caution. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.