New York, June 19, 2026, 18:01 EDT
- Intel finished Thursday up 10.6% at a new high of $133.99. AMD advanced 4.9% to $537.37.
- Intel climbed 7.6% and AMD was up 5.0% for the holiday-shortened week. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index added 7.3%, topping the Nasdaq’s 2.4% move.
- Apple and Intel haven’t said what the deal terms are. Micron is set to post earnings June 24. The Fed’s preferred inflation measure comes the next day, June 25.
Intel shares outperformed Advanced Micro Devices during the short week after President Donald Trump said Apple is set to work with Intel on chip design and production in the U.S. U.S. markets were closed Friday for Juneteenth.
Investors are making two bets. AMD is still seen as the steady name on AI chip demand. Intel’s move is more about its push to fix manufacturing and land big outside clients. The chip index closed at a record, with buyers moving into the whole sector.
Trump didn’t say which chips, how many, or when Apple and Intel would start work. Apple and Intel didn’t confirm the deal to Reuters. A big order would help Intel’s contract chipmaking, called its foundry business, and boost its bid to take on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
Analysts disagree on what the Apple signal means for Intel’s value. Ivan Feinseth at Tigress Financial Partners said Intel is “gaining real traction,” but Bernstein’s Stacy Rasgon warned Apple’s first orders could be “low-volume, less important parts.” MarketWatch
AMD announced a deal with Rackspace Technology for 30 megawatts of AMD-powered computing. The companies plan to deploy the capacity in phases from late 2026 to 2028. Dan McNamara, an AMD executive, said customers want the “right mix of accelerated and general-purpose compute,” with both graphics processors and CPUs. Rackspace Technology
AMD has numbers to back it up. The company posted first-quarter revenue of $10.3 billion, a 38% jump from last year. CEO Lisa Su said data centers drove the gains, calling them “the primary driver of our revenue and earnings growth.” That gave investors more to go on than just one big-customer scoop. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Bernstein this week called out a “CPU renaissance”, pointing to agentic AI — AI that does more steps on its own — pushing more load onto server CPUs. Rasgon’s group bumped their AMD target up to $600 and stuck with outperform. Intel, though, only got raised to $100 and stayed at market-perform, meaning neutral. Investors.com
Still, the spread may move the other way in a hurry. Apple and Intel haven’t given any numbers on volume, pricing, or delivery schedule, and Intel’s closing price is already over Bernstein’s new target. AMD now needs to deliver on its big AI orders, getting units out and booking margins. Any weakness in the sector or new inflation could hit both shares.
Wall Street’s back in action Monday. Micron’s numbers on June 24 hit as traders look for clues on AI server memory demand. On June 25, the personal consumption expenditures price index drops; it’s the Fed’s go-to inflation number and could shake up rate bets. Andy Pratt at Burney Company said there’s “still a lot of juice” in the AI trade. “Chip demand was just through the roof,” said Steve Kolano at Integrated Partners. The coming week puts both calls to the test. Reuters
