New York, May 5, 2026, 11:12 EDT
Shares of Intel Corp. surged as much as 14% Tuesday morning, spiking to $110.43 after word got out about talks with Apple that may see Intel’s U.S. plants producing key chips for Apple hardware. Recently, the stock traded at $109.18, with more than 92 million shares changing hands. Business Insider said the move marked a new all-time high for Intel.
The report gets right to the heart of Intel’s effort to reinvent itself. Foundries—chip plants making semiconductors for external clients—are exactly where Intel has been missing an anchor customer. Apple fits that bill, and could help Intel step up its fight with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics in cutting-edge production.
According to Bloomberg News, Apple floated the idea of having Intel and Samsung manufacture its main processors stateside, Reuters reported. No orders came out of those early-stage conversations, and Apple remains uneasy about adopting non-TSMC technology for large-scale production.
This moment marks a shift for Intel, which now has more to tout than just its ongoing turnaround. For the first quarter, reported on April 23, revenue landed at $13.6 billion—a 7% rise. Non-GAAP earnings came in at 29 cents per share. The company’s outlook for the second quarter: revenue between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion. (Non-GAAP figures leave out certain expenses.) CEO Lip-Bu Tan pointed to AI’s “next wave” pushing closer to users, while CFO David Zinsner highlighted what he called “unprecedented demand for silicon.” Intel Corporation
Investors zeroed in on Intel’s Data Center and AI segment—DCAI, as the company styles it. In its prepared comments, Intel reported DCAI revenue up 22% to $5.1 billion. ASIC sales—those custom chips for specialized use—came in nearly double what they were a year ago. The company also landed a win with its Xeon 6 chips, tapped as the CPU inside Nvidia’s DGX Rubin NVL8 systems. Intel Foundry brought in $5.4 billion, though external foundry accounted for just $174 million, and the business turned in a $2.4 billion operating loss.
Trefis characterized Intel’s move as pivoting from AI training toward inference—the phase when a trained model actually starts performing real-world tasks or answering user prompts. This is a critical angle for Intel, since CPUs play a key role in orchestrating those workflows. As AI agents start operating across applications, files, and web-based tasks—not just spitting out text—Intel’s chips become more relevant.
Some analysts say the Apple news isn’t just something to trade on the headline. According to Barron’s, Ben Bajarin from Creative Strategies and Patrick Moorhead at Moor Insights & Strategy both indicated Apple had moved past initial talks. Moorhead described the discussions as “much more than exploration.” Barron’s
The political dimension can’t be ignored. Trump, posting on Truth Social, said the U.S. pocketed $45 billion from an Intel investment. But Intel’s August deal with the administration tells a different story: the government agreed to buy 433.3 million shares at $20.47 apiece, a 9.9% passive stake mostly covered by CHIPS Act and Secure Enclave funding.
Chip stocks rallied, but Intel grabbed the spotlight. The PHLX Semiconductor Index climbed 3.1% Tuesday, according to MarketWatch, with Intel soaring 12.5% after a report tied it to Apple suppliers. That gain put Intel among the day’s most obvious large-cap movers in the sector.
Still, things don’t always go as planned. Apple discussions could fizzle, and those persistent foundry losses keep dogging Intel. Over on Seeking Alpha, Bears of Wall Street stuck with a Sell, pegging Intel’s intrinsic value at $20.11. The piece said the stock’s surge was outpacing the company’s margins and capex reality, pointing right at those ongoing foundry woes.
So Intel’s challenge just got tougher, not wrapped up. The market now expects actual customer contracts, improved yields on its advanced manufacturing, and a tighter foundry loss trajectory. What matters next isn’t if Apple simply showed up for talks—it’s whether Intel delivers real wafers, real revenue, real margins.
