The wilderness years
Not long ago, Intel was the market’s favorite punching bag: losing share to AMD, missing the AI accelerator wave, burning cash on an ambitious foundry buildout. The stock reflected it. By the end of 2025, expectations were somewhere between low and nonexistent — which is exactly what made 2026 possible.
The turnaround
This year, the narrative flipped. Intel’s foundry business started winning outside customers, its AI PC chips found a real market as enterprises refreshed fleets, and cost cuts finally showed up in margins. When a hated stock starts executing, the rerating is violent: Intel is up 194.31% year-to-date, ranking #6 of 501 S&P 500 stocks.
The numbers
Intel closed 2025 at $36.90 and now trades at $108.60. A $10,000 investment on New Year’s Eve would be worth $29,431 today — nearly tripled in under nine months.
What to watch
Turnarounds are fragile. Intel still has to prove the foundry can win leading-edge customers consistently and that AI PCs are a durable cycle rather than a one-time refresh. The easy money — the rerating from despair to optimism — is made. From here, it has to earn it quarter by quarter.