What has happened around Intel in the last few months could serve as a lesson in resilience.
Banita returns to the game
Problems of the giant began with defective models of 13th and 14th generation processors released between 2022-2024. The issues mainly involved instability, application freezes, and worst of all – permanent damage caused by voltage spikes. After announcing catastrophic financial results and plans to lay off 15% of employees, Intel’s shares fell more than 26% in a single session. It was one of the worst days in the company’s history on the stock exchange.
It seemed at the time that Intel would not recover from the collapse, given that competitors were moving forward, further fueled by the AI boom. Consistent rebuilding of its position in the industry paid off, because less than two years later Intel is back in the spotlight and collaborating with giants. On Friday, May 8, Wall Street saw a real explosion of enthusiasm around Intel shares. According to reports from the “Wall Street Journal,” the company entered a preliminary agreement with Apple to produce integrated circuits for devices bearing the bitten apple logo.
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Negotiations with Apple and U.S. government aid
Investor reactions were immediate, as Intel shares surged by impressive 15%. Moreover, Apple also gained, rising by 1.7%. For investors and players, this is a clear signal that the American chipmaker has finally found a cure for reviving its production activity. Interestingly, the U.S. government and CEO Lip-Bu Tan played a key role in the negotiations, consistently building alliances with giants such as Nvidia and SoftBank.
It is worth noting that in August 2025, President Donald Trump acquired 10% of the company, which at the time was worth 8.9 billion USD. Today, after announcing the breakthrough agreement with Apple, the same position is worth an astronomical 56.6 billion USD. That’s a pure profit of 47.6 billion USD in less than three quarters.
On Saturday, May 9, Intel’s share price was 124.92 USD.
Chart. Intel stock price (INTC)
Source: TradingView
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Strategic cooperation for Apple – is this the end of TSMC’s dictatorship?
For years Apple was inseparably linked to Taiwan’s TSMC. Although theoretically it was a beneficial arrangement, the Cupertino giant quickly became a hostage of limited production capacity in Taiwan. It is worth noting that during the last financial conference Tim Cook did not hide his frustration, noting that iPhone sales were hampered by a bottleneck in the supply chain.
The deal with Intel is primarily for Apple risk diversification and a forward escape. Moreover, gaining access to Intel’s U.S. fabs gives Apple steady demand and security amid the geopolitical storm of recent months.
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Intel takes heavy action against AMD – Nova Lake and Titan Lake
The reason for such strong interest in Intel shares is not only the fresh partnership with Apple but also leaks about new processors from the “Blue.” Within the next two years, the market will see four new processor families. The biggest blow in the desktop segment will be Nova Lake, planned for the end of 2026. It is a direct response to the dominance of AMD X3D processors in gaming. According to leaks, top Nova Lake units could offer up to 52 cores. Most importantly for gamers, Intel plans to introduce “D” and “DX” variants with powerful LLC cache of up to 288 MB.
Intel does not forget the laptop market, where Apple with its M series chips set a very high bar. The “Blue” response will be Titan Lake (which will appear in 2028), introducing a unified core architecture under the working name Copper Shark.
All signs point to Intel being closely watched by investors in the coming months. Such rapid growth and promising upcoming quarters mean that the silicon giant from Santa Clara is back in the game.
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Source: WSJ
