Intel (INTC) stock jumped roughly 5% in premarket trading on June 11, 2026, after Bank of America issued a double-upgrade — moving the stock from Underperform all the way to Buy — and lifted its price target from $96 to $135.
That’s a big swing from a bank that was previously bearish on the name.
The upgrade was driven by growing analyst confidence in two areas: Intel’s server CPU business and its external foundry operations. BofA now believes Intel can deliver earnings power of more than $6 per share by 2030, up from a previous estimate of $3 to $4.
The bank applied a 25x multiple to its 2030 EPS power estimate of $6.24, discounted back two years, to land at the $135 target. Analysts said their prior sum-of-parts methodology based on 2028 estimates was leaving too much on the table.
On the product side, BofA expects Intel’s server CPU revenue to exceed $40 billion by 2030. That would represent about 25% of what the bank sizes as a $170 billion total addressable market.
The analysts tied this directly to AI. As AI workloads shift toward agentic systems — where models act autonomously rather than just respond to prompts — the CPU’s role expands beyond traditional server management. BofA values that agentic AI opportunity at around $70 billion by 2030.
That’s a meaningful reframe of Intel’s position in the AI stack.
On the foundry side, BofA identified several potential deals in Intel’s pipeline. These include Apple M-Series wafers, MediaTek TPU wafers, Terafab IP and packaging work, and ARM-based server CPU opportunities.
The bank also pointed to a recent IP collaboration between Intel and Cadence on Intel’s 14A node. That partnership is seen as helping build a more durable external foundry ecosystem.
One factor that stood out in the BofA note: Intel’s institutional ownership is unusually low. Despite a market cap of around $540 billion — making it the fifth largest among U.S. semiconductor and AI infrastructure stocks — Intel is owned by just 16% of S&P 500 funds.
That makes it the second least-owned stock in the group, after SanDisk.
BofA drew a comparison to AMD, where institutional ownership rose 1,400 basis points over the past year alongside a 309% gain in the stock price. The implication: there’s room for Intel ownership to grow, and that could support the stock.
The bank did flag risks. ARM-based and custom chip competition remains a real threat. There’s also potential for AI capital spending to slow, and Intel still has to execute on its leading-edge manufacturing ramp — something it has stumbled on before.
Insiders haven’t been buying. Over the past three months, insiders sold $6.5 million worth of stock with no purchases recorded.
The stock was trading around $112.90 as of the morning session, up from a prior close near $107.
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