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Shares of Intel (INTC) have surged nearly 500% over the past year, with much of the gain coming in the last several weeks. After the company posted its first-quarter results in late April and was reported earlier this month to have reached a preliminary chip-manufacturing agreement with Apple, the stock set a fresh 52-week high near $130.
Intel’s rally has been supported by improving financial performance. For first quarter 2026, revenue rose 7% year over year to $13.6 billion, exceeding the midpoint of management’s guidance by more than $1 billion. It also marked the sixth consecutive quarter in which Intel beat its own forecast. Non-GAAP earnings per share were $0.29, clearing management’s forecast for breakeven. Adjusted gross margin expanded to 41% from 39.2% in the year-ago quarter.
The company’s data center and AI segment delivered particularly strong results. Segment revenue increased 22% year over year to $5.1 billion in Q1, accelerating from 9% growth in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Intel CFO David Zinsner pointed to the role of CPUs in the AI era, saying the CPU is increasingly essential as AI workloads shift from training-heavy use cases toward inference and agentic systems. He also suggested that the GPU-to-CPU ratio in deployments may compress, potentially increasing demand for Intel’s Xeon line.
Several developments have reinforced the market’s focus on Intel’s foundry and AI strategy. The article notes that last year Nvidia agreed to invest $5 billion in Intel and to use Intel for custom data center CPUs. Intel also joined Elon Musk’s Terafab project as a strategic partner alongside SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla.
Earlier this month, Intel was reported to have reached a preliminary agreement to manufacture some of Apple’s chips, a notable shift given Apple’s long-running reliance on Taiwan Semiconductor for advanced silicon. The U.S. government is also described as holding roughly a 10% stake in Intel.
Despite similarities in AI-related narratives, the article argues that comparing Intel directly to Nvidia is a stretch due to differences in scale, margins, and profitability.
Nvidia’s most recent quarter revenue rose 73% year over year to $68.1 billion, with data center revenue of $62.3 billion—nearly five times Intel’s total quarterly revenue. Nvidia’s gross margin was 75%, about double Intel’s. For fiscal 2026, Nvidia’s revenue is cited as growing 65% to $215.9 billion, while Intel’s full-year 2025 revenue was about $52.9 billion and described as essentially flat year over year.
Profitability gaps are also highlighted. Intel’s foundry segment posted a $2.4 billion operating loss in the first quarter, and adjusted free cash flow during the period was about negative $2 billion. By contrast, the article cites Nvidia generating $43 billion in net income in its most recent quarter.
The article also compares stock-market pricing. Intel trades around $125 per share, about six times its level a year ago, with a market capitalization above $600 billion. It also notes a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 140.
By comparison, Nvidia is described as having a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 24. The article concludes that Intel would need not only exceptional growth this year but for the next decade to justify a valuation at this level, while Nvidia’s faster growth is reflected in its lower multiple.
While the article says Intel’s deals with Apple, Nvidia, and Terafab suggest its foundry strategy is gaining traction and that its data center and AI business is showing momentum, it also argues that the stock has already priced in much of that progress. It concludes that Intel is unlikely to be “the next Nvidia” given the differences in growth rates, gross margins, and profitability.
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