NEW YORK, May 15, 2026, 09:36 EDT
- Intel shares dropped hard right after the open, deepening the slide from highs earlier this week.
- Fresh server-chip share numbers put new pressure on the group, as AMD and Arm both picked up ground.
- The news weighed on a stock that had been rallying on AI-driven demand, optimism for Apple foundry business, and the wider chip-sector upswing.
Intel tumbled 6.5% to $108.45 just after trading began in New York on Friday, deepening its slide after three days in the red and tightening the squeeze on one of the year’s standout chip plays. The stock wrapped up Thursday at $115.93, down 3.6%. Early numbers Friday had it bottoming out at $108.24, according to market data.
No single headline drove the move. Instead, a mix of factors weighed: investors locking in profits following a sharp rally, renewed worries about Intel’s server-chip position, and semiconductor stocks in general losing steam after months of AI-fueled advances.
Intel’s 2026 push is facing a different kind of pressure than Nvidia’s—it’s not just about selling into the AI surge. Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan has to convince investors he can breathe life back into Intel’s CPU business and establish its foundry branch as a legitimate third-party chipmaker. Reuters pointed out this week the company is still “far from a steady state,” despite Tan locking in backing from the U.S. government, Nvidia and SoftBank. Reuters
UBS data on server CPUs, the core chips powering data-center servers, showed the sharpest squeeze. “Arm and AMD units outgrew and continued to gain share at the expense of Intel,” UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri noted, as Intel’s server CPU share dipped to 54.9% for the first quarter. AMD climbed to 27.4%, and Arm took 17.7%. Barron’s
This is where Intel looks uneasy. CPU demand is climbing with the AI data center boom, yet investors keep questioning if Intel’s share of that uptick is enough. AMD’s made headway with its EPYC server lineup, and big cloud players have started to turn to Arm-based chips for their energy savings.
The chip sector’s sharp rally set the scene for the selloff. According to a Reuters analysis published Wednesday, the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index surged 64% from late March, while the S&P 500 managed a 17% gain in the same window. Intel shares? Nearly tripled. “Anytime you see parabolic moves in anything, you have to ask yourself, are things getting too ebullient here?” said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel, speaking to Reuters. Reuters
Macro pressures weighed on the market. Growth stocks that are sensitive to rates typically falter when traders price in persistently high borrowing costs, and prediction markets reflected just that: Kalshi’s economics board pinned a 97% shot at the Fed holding steady in June, plus a 68% chance of no cuts at all in 2026. Over at Polymarket, odds were 98% for no change next month, with 67% betting on zero cuts this year.
Providing some tailwind, Intel posted first-quarter revenue of $13.6 billion, a 7% increase from the same period last year, with non-GAAP earnings hitting 29 cents per share. The company projected second-quarter revenue between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion—numbers that fed into the earlier rally.
Investors have been eyeing a tentative agreement that would see Intel manufacturing chips for Apple devices—a development that could strengthen both Intel Foundry and Washington’s efforts to ramp up domestic chip output. Reuters highlighted the Apple deal last week, referencing the Wall Street Journal.
The foundry story is still a tough sell. “No company in history has ever fallen off the Moore’s law curve and made it back on,” Seaport Research analyst Jay Goldberg told Reuters, pointing to the long-standing chip industry benchmark of faster, cheaper chips over time. J.P. Morgan’s Harlan Sur figures it’ll be at least another 12 to 18 months before there’s any real sense of Intel’s 18A process, and possibly five years or more before anyone can say if the foundry business ever stands on its own as a profitable operation. Reuters
Here’s the risk for either camp. Should Intel manage to convert Apple, AI-server momentum, and limited TSMC output into substantial foundry business, then Friday’s slide could end up just a breather following a stretched rally. On the flip side, if AMD and Arm continue biting off server share while Intel pours money into plants, there isn’t much cushion left in the stock price for any stumble.
The market didn’t mince words. Intel shares dropped—investors got another reminder that the AI CPU surge isn’t automatically falling into Intel’s lap, and a stock that had baked in a rebound now faces renewed demands for validation.
