Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) stock rose 5% in premarket trading Wednesday after Reuters reported that South Korea’s SK Hynix is exploring a deal with the chip giant that could bring memory-chip production to the U.S. using part of Intel’s Ohio manufacturing campus.
No agreement has been reached, and the companies are still considering different ways to structure a deal. One option would involve SK Hynix leasing part of the Ohio site, while another could involve Intel, SK Hynix and large cloud companies working together. For Intel, the talks could offer a new use for a facility that has been hit by delays while potentially bringing a major semiconductor customer into its manufacturing network.
Analysts are split on the implications. On the bullish side, Tigress Financial’s Ivan Feinseth reiterated his Buy rating and raised his 12-month price target to $145 from $118, suggesting the stock will gain 49% over the coming year. Feinseth argues that Intel’s AI turnaround is gaining credibility as a series of partnerships and product developments strengthen its position across data center computing, AI PCs, semiconductor manufacturing and foundry services.
He sees AI as an opportunity for Intel’s x86 CPU business, pointing to the growing need for general-purpose processing alongside accelerated computing for workloads such as inference, agentic AI, data orchestration and networking. He believes Intel’s Xeon 6 lineup and upcoming 18A-based products leave the company well positioned to capture part of that demand.
Feinseth also points to Intel’s work with Nvidia, including plans for custom x86 data-center processors connected to Nvidia platforms through NVLink and PC processors incorporating Nvidia RTX chiplets. He sees the recently announced Terafab partnership with SpaceX, xAI and Tesla as an “additional long-term catalyst,” giving Intel an opportunity to design, manufacture and package advanced chips for AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles and space-based computing.
Although details of Terafab remain limited, Feinseth believes the partnership could provide external validation of Intel’s engineering capabilities while creating a potentially significant future customer for its foundry and packaging operations. He also points to the expansion of 18A production, Panther Lake and Xeon 6+ as evidence that Intel’s process roadmap is moving toward higher-volume manufacturing.
Taken together, Feinseth believes Intel is building a broader AI platform spanning CPUs, servers, inference, edge computing, robotics, advanced packaging and foundry services.
On the cautious side, Piper Sandler recently rated Intel neutral. Analyst David O’Connor believes the strong rally in Intel stock over the past year could limit more upside, which explains the $110 price target. Still, Piper Sandler believes Intel can clock annual revenue growth in the high teens through 2030. Last year, Intel’s top line was flat at $52.9 billion.
The growth is expected to be driven by improving server CPU demand. These chips are being deployed in AI data centers to run inference and agentic AI workloads. AMD estimates that the ratio of server CPUs to GPUs for facilitating agentic AI workloads is moving to 1:1, compared with a CPU-to-GPU ratio of 1:4 or 1:8 in AI data centers running chatbots.
This structural shift is driving CPU demand and resulting in a supply shortage that is pushing up prices. According to one estimate, Intel reportedly has a server CPU order backlog of more than six months. Server CPU prices have increased by 10% to 35%. According to DigiTimes, Intel reportedly plans to increase server CPU prices by 10% next month.
Bank of America expects the server CPU total addressable market to jump almost fivefold between 2025 and 2030, reaching more than $170 billion by the end of the decade. Consensus estimates project a 19% increase in Intel’s revenue in 2026 to $63 billion, followed by robust increases in 2027 and 2028.
If Intel can achieve 10% annual revenue growth in 2029 and 2030, its top line could approach $100 billion in 2030. At 9 times sales, its market cap would jump to $900 billion, 65% higher than its current market cap.
