NEW YORK, April 28, 2026, 15:28 EDT
Intel shares pared losses after a sharp early slide on Tuesday, but remained in the red through the afternoon. The chipmaker’s recent rally stalled, leaving the stock off nearly 1% at $84.12. Earlier, it touched $80.39. Volume topped 109 million shares.
Intel’s position is drawing attention as it’s now seen as a bellwether for a new wave in AI trading: CPUs powering data center inference, that critical phase where models process real-world questions. On Friday, Reuters revealed AI service providers have been snapping up Intel’s CPUs with such urgency that chips once marked as unsellable are now back on the table. “A meaningful foundry contribution in 2027 would indicate the turnaround is ‘complete,’” TECHnalysis Research president Bob O’Donnell told Reuters. Reuters
It wasn’t just Intel under fire Tuesday. Shares with AI exposure lost ground after the Wall Street Journal said OpenAI fell short on user and revenue targets—casting doubt on the ChatGPT creator’s ability to fund upcoming computing agreements. Reuters noted the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index slid 3.2%. AMD, Broadcom, and Nvidia were also in the red.
Intel finally delivered the kind of numbers investors had been craving. First-quarter revenue climbed 7% to $13.6 billion, with Data Center and AI revenue jumping 22% to $5.1 billion. For the second quarter, the company is guiding for revenue between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion. CEO Lip-Bu Tan pointed to a “significantly increasing” need for Intel’s CPUs as AI inference ramps up. CFO David Zinsner flagged strong silicon demand and ongoing efforts to bolster supply. Intel Corporation
The main event lands later this week: Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon are all set to report earnings. Reuters has the four tech giants expected to commit roughly $600 billion to AI this year. For those holding Intel, that level of spending isn’t background noise—it’s the core demand driver.
The divide on Wall Street isn’t budging. D.A. Davidson’s Gil Luria and his team called Intel “stretched” after its recent run and said they’re sticking with AMD. Over at Jefferies, analysts kept their neutral stance, saying they want to see Intel land bigger customers first. But Citi shifted gears, bumping Intel up to a buy following its involvement in Elon Musk’s terafab project, Investopedia noted. Investopedia
But supply and proof remain sticking points. Zinsner told Reuters part of the first-quarter boost came from offloading older or lower-spec inventory. He’s unsure Intel can repeat that trick in the second quarter. If AI budgets keep clustering among fewer suppliers, or if major buyers hold off for next-gen server models, the shares might jump ahead of fundamentals again.
Right now, Intel isn’t acting like a sluggish PC-cycle stock—call it more an AI-cycle stand-in. That’s a step up from the issues dogging the company two years back, though it also tightens the leash if results slip. Next up: investors will be watching not just Intel’s forecasts, but also whether the largest cloud customers keep spending.
