NEW YORK, March 26, 2026, 07:43 AM EDT
Intel (INTC) finished Wednesday up 7.1% at $47.18 after unveiling its Core Ultra Series 3 business PCs, the first to use its 18A manufacturing process. The new lineup is set to power over 125 different designs, with shipments kicking off March 31. Along with that, Intel introduced its Arc Pro B70 and B65 graphics cards. David Feng, a vice president in the client computing group, described this as Intel’s “most expansive and capable commercial portfolio” yet. Executive Anil Nanduri pointed to the Arc Pro range as built for “AI builders at scale.” Bloomberg.com
The significance of the launch is tied directly to CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s broader turnaround strategy—18A is at its heart. Back in January, Intel’s Panther Lake chips made headlines, but Reuters pointed out that most of the earlier Lunar Lake generation had come off TSMC’s lines. That detail hasn’t escaped investors, who are closely tracking Intel’s efforts to pull advanced chip production back in-house and win back PC market ground lost to AMD.
Sectors saw heavy buying as well. Shares of Arm jumped 20% Wednesday. The company projected its upcoming data-center AI CPU could generate around $15 billion a year in revenue in five years, sending the stock higher. Reuters reported Intel and AMD each climbed over 5%, with investors piling into CPU stocks.
Gains in the wider market offered support. With oil dropping and traders chasing hints of Middle East tensions easing, the S&P 500 climbed 0.54%, and the Nasdaq picked up 0.77%.
This week, Intel’s 2026 proxy filing revealed some new details. A revised U.S. government agreement wiped out earlier milestones from the company’s CHIPS Act deal — that’s the domestic chip subsidy — and pushed forward $5.7 billion in payouts. As of March 20, the government held 8.4% of Intel’s common stock.
The rally leaves one problem unresolved for Intel: execution. Earlier this month, Reuters noted that just a fraction of 18A chips made the cut for customers. Intel, for its part, maintains that yields—the portion of chips per wafer considered usable—are ticking higher every month. CFO David Zinsner called 18A “a good node to offer to external customers as well,” but the reality is that sluggish yields keep margin pressure front and center. Reuters
Short-term pressure is also on the table. Back in February, Reuters reported that Intel had alerted Chinese buyers to possible delays reaching six months for certain server CPUs. One source told the outlet that supply snarls had already driven prices for some Intel server lines up more than 10% across China. Robust AI demand can buoy prices, but ongoing shortages will put a ceiling on just how much revenue Intel can actually book.
Still, investors seemed ready to back something tangible: an actual ship date, real products on offer, and, crucially, another shot at seeing if Intel can shift 18A from recovery talk to serious volume sales.
