Why Intel Stock Climbed This Week
Key Points
AI tasks are shifting to CPU-powered workloads.
Intel and its shareholders stand to profit handsomely from this trend.
Shares of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) rose over 7% this past week after an analyst report highlighted the chipmaker's enormous artificial intelligence (AI)-driven growth potential.
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A forthcoming surge in demand for Intel's CPUs
The AI boom is creating a massive need for the semiconductor chips that power high-performance computing infrastructure. Many investors are aware of this trend. But they may be overlooking the shift toward central processor units (CPUs), as compute needs transition from graphics processing unit (GPU)-based model training to agentic AI workloads.
Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry believes this shift will help Intel's annual earnings per share grow more than tenfold to $20 by 2031. For context, Wall Street's consensus estimates call for Intel's EPS to increase to $1.51 in 2026 and $2.04 in 2027, as per Yahoo! Finance.
In turn, Chowdhry sees Intel's stock price more than doubling to $200 per share.
Dell's gains bode well for Intel
Chowdhry cites Dell's (NYSE: DELL) recent earnings release and subsequent management commentary as evidence that this trend is already taking hold.
Revenue in Dell's traditional server segment soared 122% to $10.5 billion in the second quarter. Intel's CPUs help to power many of these servers.
"We are seeing a growing trend of customers that require meaningful CPU compute capacity to support AI and agentic workflows," Dell's chief operating officer, Jeff Clarke, said during the company's Q2 earnings call.
"This is INTC CPUs," Chowdhry said.
Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.