Intel shares surged 24% on Friday, their best day since October 1987, as investors cheered signs of recovery on growing demand for artificial intelligence. The stock closed at $82.57 and is up 124% so far this year after rising 84% for all of 2025. Friday's gains exceeded the stock's 23% gain on September 18, when Nvidia agreed to invest $5 billion in Intel.
Chen Liwu, who took over as CEO early last year, reignited Wall Street's interest in the troubled chip company by courting investment from the Trump administration and Nvidia and helping the chipmaker squeeze into the field after being largely excluded from the AI boom.
Evercore ISI analysts wrote in a report after the earnings release: "Intel's new CEO has repaired the balance sheet and is executing a strategy that appears to return Intel to a competitive track." The agency upgraded Intel stock to the equivalent of a "buy" level.
The company’s revenue exceeded expectations, growing 7.2% year-on-year to US$13.58 billion from US$12.67 billion in the same period last year. The company has seen year-over-year revenue declines in five of the previous seven quarters. Intel also issued upbeat second-quarter guidance.
Wall Street's rally marks a major turn for the U.S. chipmaker. The company lost 60% of its market value in 2024, leading to the dismissal of then-CEO Pat Gelsinger in December of that year.
The company has been largely absent from the AI race for years as it struggled with manufacturing delays and waited for big customers to emerge for its chip foundry business.
Some analysts are still waiting to see whether Intel's next-generation 14A manufacturing technology, planned for launch in 2028 or later, can deliver satisfactory yields. Previously, Chen Liwu said that Intel would wait for major customers to emerge before promoting expensive latest technology upgrades. However, he published a document on the X platform in January that Intel would "invest heavily in 14A."
Chen Liwu said during last Thursday's earnings call that "multiple customers" are "actively evaluating this technology" and that its development is progressing faster than Intel's previous 18A technology.
Intel's data center business is the main driver of current growth. Revenue at the business rose 22% year over year to $5.1 billion as artificial intelligence drove new demand for central processing units. Chen Liwu called the CPU "an indispensable foundation in the AI era" during the earnings call.
Citi analysts upgraded the stock to buy from neutral, predicting higher CPU sales from all vendors over the next few years.