Intel Stock Soars to Record Highs After Blowout Sales Forecast

The move: Intel stock soared 23% on Friday to a record, trading as high as $85.22 before closing out the day at $82.57. Shares of the chip manufacturer have been on a tear recently, with Friday’s rally bringing the year-to-date gain to 120%.

The chart:

Why: Investors are cheering Intel’s first-quarter earnings report, which blew past Wall Street’s estimates.

Revenue came in at $13.58 billion, topping the anticipated $12.42 billion, and earnings-per-share came in at $0.29 versus $0.01 estimated. The revenue increase is a 7.2% increase from the $12.67 billion Intel posted one year ago.

But the forward guidance was the real show for investors. Intel expects second-quarter revenue of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion, outpacing analysts’ expectations of $13 billion. It expects EPS of $0.09 for the quarter.

What it means: A key takeaway from the earnings report is Intel’s data center growth. Revenue in this key area surged 22%, topping $5 billion, while its foundry revenue jumped 16% to $5.4 billion

“The next wave of AI will bring intelligence closer to the end user, moving from foundational models to inference to agentic. This shift is significantly increasing the need for Intel’s CPUs and wafer and advanced packaging offerings,” Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a statement.

Intel has languished as a laggard in the AI race until recently, eclipsed by other hardware titans like Nvidia. But this type of growth indicates that market forces may be shifting in Intel’s favor.

Intel flagged its Xeon 6 CPU as selected by Nvidia to host the tech leader’s DGX Rubin NVL8 systems. This decision is seen as a major update in the deployment of AI infrastructure for the compahy.

Marcus Sturdivant Sr, a managing principal at advisory firm The ABC Squared, isn’t surprised by Intel’s earnings smash.

“Intel is set up for success,” he told Business Insider. “They’re the American First chip maker. We’ve seen huge investments into their company over the last few years, even beginning with the CHIPS Act during President Biden’s administration. Now we’re seeing new leadership efforts come to fruition.”