New York, February 10, 2026, 16:53 EST — Trading after the bell
Intel (INTC.O) shares dropped 6.2% to $47.13 in after-hours trading Tuesday, continuing a sharp decline from earlier sessions. The stock fluctuated between $46.78 and $50.50, with roughly 99 million shares changing hands.
Investors stayed cautious following weak U.S. retail sales and with Wednesday’s postponed January payrolls report looming. “Nobody wants to get too far above their risk budget” ahead of the data, said Janney Montgomery Scott chief investment strategist Mark Luschini. (Reuters)
Tech stocks are wobbling again amid fresh scrutiny of hefty AI investment plans and rising skepticism about the longevity of the capex surge. UBS cut the U.S. tech sector to “neutral,” pointing to uncertainty and concerns that AI infrastructure spending may have peaked. (Investopedia)
Intel aimed to highlight network and edge demand at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The company plans to demonstrate “AI inference”—using trained models to generate results, not training them—within live mobile networks. (Newsroom)
Rakuten Mobile announced it’s deepening its partnership with Intel to advance “AI-native” virtualized radio access networks, or vRAN — software-driven systems running on standard servers instead of specialized telecom hardware. “We are incredibly excited to expand our collaboration with Intel,” said Rakuten Mobile co-CEO and CTO Sharad Sriwastawa. Intel’s executive VP Kevork Kechichian added that together they’ll demonstrate how “AI benefits can be achieved in vRAN.” (Rakuten Mobile)
Intel lagged behind the rest of the chip sector. The iShares Semiconductor ETF dipped 0.4%, Nvidia slipped 0.7%, and AMD declined 1.1%, but U.S.-listed TSMC climbed 1.8%.
Macro data set the tone. U.S. retail sales stalled in December, with “core” sales—a key gauge economists use to track consumer spending in GDP—taking a dip. This suggests that momentum could be weakening as 2026 approaches. (Reuters)
Intel’s stock remains volatile after last month’s guidance shook up investors. The company revealed it had trouble meeting demand for server chips powering AI data centers and predicted first-quarter revenue and profits would fall short of expectations. (Reuters)
Chief executive Lip-Bu Tan is aiming to reset expectations in the AI race. Intel intends to develop graphics processing units tailored for data centers and has brought on Qualcomm executive Eric Demmers to head the project. (Reuters)
The situation isn’t one-sided. Sources told Reuters that Intel and AMD have alerted their Chinese customers to long delays for certain CPUs, with Intel’s lead times reaching up to six months. (Reuters)
Washington’s upcoming jobs report is the next big swing factor. The Labor Department will release its delayed January employment figures this Wednesday. According to a Reuters poll, nonfarm payrolls are expected to grow by 70,000, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.4%. (Reuters)
Next up, traders will be keeping an eye on whether Intel’s network-and-edge strategy catches on at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, set for March 2-5. (MWC Barcelona)
