Intel has been on a rough stretch. After surging more than 200% between March 30 and May 11, the stock has now fallen for five straight days, dropping 16% in that span. On Tuesday, it was pointing another 2% lower ahead of the open.
That’s a sharp reversal. But analysts aren’t hitting the panic button.
The stock is still up more than 190% in 2026. The recent pullback, while painful, looks more like a breather after an explosive run than the start of a longer slide.
Seaport analyst Jay Goldberg laid out the case for calm in a note Monday. He acknowledged the chip-stock rally has been so fast that many names are now running ahead of their underlying business results.
But he carved out Intel and AMD as exceptions. Both companies, he said, have a real chance of “growing into their numbers” — meaning their business results could catch up to what the market has already priced in.
That’s a meaningful distinction. Goldberg also flagged that Nvidia continues to face high expectations and supply constraints, which could weigh on that stock near term.
The bullish case for Intel got fresh support from two separate analyst notes this week.
Benchmark analyst Cody Acree came away from a fireside chat with Intel management more confident than before. He said investors are still underestimating Intel’s earnings power in 2027 and 2028, as well as the valuation multiple the stock could command.
Acree reiterated his Buy rating and raised his price target to $140 from $105. That implies around 30% upside from where the stock closed on Monday.
Citi also moved its target higher, lifting it to $130 from $95. The bank’s analysts said the server CPU market is set to expand far faster than previously expected, driven by demand tied to agentic AI.
In Citi’s updated model, the server CPU total addressable market reaches $131.5 billion by 2030 — up from just $29.3 billion in 2025. That’s a massive expansion in a relatively short window.
Citi broke the opportunity into three segments: general-purpose CPUs, AI head nodes, and agentic CPU applications.
The agentic CPU category is expected to grow the fastest. Citi sees it hitting $59.4 billion by 2030, accounting for 45% of the entire market.
Intel is expected to retain a large piece of that pie. Citi is forecasting a 47% market share for Intel by the end of the decade.
The bank also pointed to potential upside from Intel’s ASIC business, specifically its Mount Evans IPU. That product is used by Google and connects to Anthropic — giving Intel a foothold in some of the most active corners of the AI buildout.
Citi also raised its data center sales estimates for Intel as part of the updated model.
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