New York, Feb 10, 2026, 07:46 EST — Premarket
- Intel shares slipped 0.7% in premarket action, following a $50.61 close.
- Rakuten Mobile is ramping up its collaboration with Intel, expanding their push into AI-native virtualized radio access networks.
- Investors are watching for U.S. retail sales numbers set for release later Tuesday, with inflation data still to come this week.
Intel slipped 0.7% to $50.24 ahead of the open Tuesday, with shares dipping after Rakuten Mobile announced it’s deepening its collaboration with the chipmaker to ramp up artificial intelligence across mobile network infrastructure.
The partnership comes at a time when telecom operators face mounting demands to reduce energy consumption and automate routine network management, even as surging data traffic forces them to boost capacity. “AI inside the network” isn’t just a catchphrase anymore; it’s quickly turning into a real lever for both efficiency and performance.
Intel’s announcement comes as investors argue about where fresh AI investments might surface—and whether they’ll actually pay off. U.S. stock futures hardly budged this day, with a string of earnings and data on deck. AI stocks? Traders are on alert for another shakeout.
Rakuten Mobile is ramping up efforts to bring “AI-native” features into its radio access network, on top of its existing virtualized RAN setups powered by Intel Xeon chips. Co-CEO and CTO Sharad Sriwastawa described the push as a move to “pioneer truly AI-native RAN architectures.” Over at Intel, Data Center chief Kevork Kechichian said AI is “transforming how networks are built and operated.” Rakuten Mobile
Virtualized RAN, or vRAN, moves radio processing off specialized hardware and onto software that runs on standard servers. The selling point: it gives operators more flexibility, with quicker feature updates, easier vendor mixing, and simpler capacity scaling—no need for as many hardware swaps.
Intel’s data center unit sits at the heart of its strategy. Just last month, the company said it was having trouble keeping up with demand for certain server chips powering AI data centers, and it projected quarterly sales and profit would fall short of what Wall Street had hoped for—a reminder that supply hiccups and performance can still move the stock.
But telecom isn’t hyperscale. Operators purchase in waves. They hold off on major rollouts until equipment clears field tests, hits reliability goals, and stays within strict latency limits—the kind of split-second lag that can disrupt a real-time link if it creeps up.
Timing’s the other wildcard. AI in the RAN could make networks run smoother, but if carriers see only small wins at first—or if budgets get crimped—they might stall, holding off on upgrades. Any chip orders that investors are eyeing could end up delayed.
Tuesday morning brings the first big macro headline for traders—retail sales data from the U.S. Census Bureau is set to drop before the bell.
Chipmakers and other tech names sensitive to rates have their eyes on inflation numbers this week. The U.S. consumer price index for January drops Feb. 13 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.
