Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan hinted at a possible return to the memory chip business during an appearance on the TechSurge: Deep Tech VC Podcast on August 13. INTC opened at $104.56 on Friday, up about 3.6% on the day.
Tan described new memory architecture as “one of my pet projects,” adding: “I used to not invest in memory because it was kind of a commodity business. But now it has become different.”
He stopped short of announcing a formal program. But the signals around it are hard to ignore.
The timing lines up with Intel’s $20 billion common stock offering, completed August 10. It was upsized from an initial $15 billion target and priced at $95 per share across 210.5 million shares. Tan personally invested $12 million of his own and his family’s money at the offering price.
Proceeds are earmarked for capital expenditures and advanced packaging, language that fits squarely with what a memory push would require.
In June, Intel appointed Seok-Hee Lee, former CEO of SK Hynix, as executive vice president of Intel Foundry. Tan referenced that hire directly on the podcast: “So you kind of know something that I’m thinking about.”
Lee’s arrival adds credibility to the memory talk, though it also raises questions. SK Hynix is separately reported to be in talks to acquire Intel’s Ohio chip campus for U.S. memory production, putting Lee’s dual relationship with both companies under scrutiny.
Intel has filed a patent for cross-batch memory (XBM), an ultra-high-bandwidth architecture designed to match HBM4 performance without the costly silicon interposer used in current HBM designs. The patent was filed December 26, 2024 and published July 2, 2026.
Intel is also co-developing Z-Angle Memory (ZAM) with SAIMEMORY, a SoftBank subsidiary. ZAM is a nine-layer stacked DRAM positioned as a lower-power alternative to HBM.
Micron estimates the global HBM market will grow from around $35 billion in 2025 to roughly $100 billion by 2028, a compound annual growth rate of about 40%.
That is the prize. But getting there is another matter. “There are always many concepts for new forms of memory, but it is extremely difficult for them to go through verification and commercialization and ultimately reach mass production,” said Lee Jong-hwan, a professor of system semiconductor engineering at Sangmyung University.
Intel’s Q2 2026 revenue came in at $16.13 billion, up 25% year-over-year. The data center and AI segment grew 59%. EPS hit $0.42, doubling analyst estimates of $0.21.
Institutional investors now own 64.53% of INTC. Vanguard, State Street, Capital World Investors, Geode Capital and Morgan Stanley all increased their positions. The consensus analyst price target sits at $107.85, with 32 of 50 analysts rating the stock a “Hold.”
No commercialization timeline has been set for either XBM or ZAM.
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