NEW YORK, May 25, 2026, 17:02 EDT
- U.S. stock markets were shut Monday for Memorial Day, delaying Intel’s next trading session until Tuesday.
- Intel finished Friday at $119.84, gaining 1.13% and capping off a shaky week for chip names.
- The question now is if AI demand for server chips and factory supply can keep supporting the stock’s steep run into 2026.
Intel shares head into the holiday-shortened week—U.S. markets are closed Monday—with a clearer setup than a month back. Investors are asking if the company’s AI push can keep the rally going after the stock’s quick move.
Nasdaq and NYSE didn’t open May 25 for Memorial Day, their 2026 holiday schedules showed. The next trading session is set for Tuesday. That leaves Intel’s price from Friday as the last official close.
Intel (INTC.O) finished Friday at $119.84, gaining 1.13%, according to Reuters market data. But shares had struggled earlier. Barron’s said Intel fell 0.6% to $108.17 on Monday, its fifth loss in a row, despite price target hikes from Citi’s Atif Malik and Benchmark’s Cody Acree.
Intel’s swings matter because the stock isn’t just about PCs anymore. Bulls now see a larger story. CPUs—the chips used in servers—are back in focus as AI shifts from just training models to inference, or actually running those models in real-world products.
Intel stirred up debate again in April. The chipmaker said Q1 revenue was up 7% to $13.6 billion and guided for Q2 revenue between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion. It posted a GAAP loss of 73 cents per share, but its non-GAAP earnings, the adjusted figure Intel uses, came in at 29 cents a share. CEO Lip-Bu Tan pointed to rising demand for Intel CPUs and its wafer and advanced-packaging products, saying the swing to inference work and “agentic” AI was driving that growth. Intel
Nvidia last week gave a second-quarter revenue forecast of $91 billion, beating Wall Street numbers, and revealed an $80 billion buyback. But eMarketer’s Jacob Bourne said the “lingering question” is if Nvidia can show that AI spending will hold up as workloads move to inference and competitors like Google, Amazon, AMD and Intel ramp up their own chips. Reuters
Nvidia is moving further into Intel’s main business. CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia’s estimate for a $200 billion CPU market counts China in, suggesting more companies are targeting the space Intel wants.
ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet told Reuters the market for chips will be “supply-limited…for quite a while,” pointing to demand coming from AI, satellites and robots that’s pressuring production. The company’s top lithography tools are critical for making leading-edge chips, and Intel plans to start using ASML’s High NA EUV machines early. Reuters
That’s a boost for Intel’s efforts to grow its foundry business—making chips for other designers—but it doesn’t erase execution risk. “TSMC is the real bottleneck,” SemiAnalysis President Doug O’Loughlin told Reuters. Seaport Research’s Jay Goldberg added, “no company in history” has dropped behind Moore’s law and then caught up; Moore’s law is chip industry shorthand for consistent progress in density and cost. Reuters
U.S. stocks climbed on Friday, with the Dow settling at a record and the S&P 500 putting in its eighth consecutive weekly win. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index also gained ground. Nvidia dropped 1.9%. James St. Aubin at Ocean Park Asset Management said earnings have been solid. He called headlines out of the Middle East “encouraging.” Reuters
The risk for Intel is clear. If demand for AI servers drops, if foundry customers don’t follow through, or if there are new setbacks for Intel’s manufacturing ramp, shareholders could be stuck with a company still burning cash and posting losses. Michael Schulman at Cerity Partners said Intel is making a “high-stakes gamble” on trying to compete with TSMC by 2030. Reuters
Intel faces an early test in how it trades coming out of the holiday. Bigger moves could depend on macro data and chip earnings, with the U.S. calendar this week bringing GDP, jobless claims, and PCE inflation data, Trading Economics said.
