Intel shares experienced a significant surge of 7% during Tuesday's trading session, reaching their highest level since July 2024. The sharp increase was driven by renewed optimism regarding artificial intelligence infrastructure spending, coupled with broad strength across the semiconductor sector.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose approximately 3% on the day, continuing a historic second-quarter rally that saw it soar 81%. The chip sector saw widespread gains, with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Marvell Technology, Inc. up around 7%, SanDisk rising over 6%, and ASML Holding N.V. climbing more than 4% to a record high.

Intel has been a key beneficiary of this market movement. The company's stock has surged approximately 257% year-to-date, standing out among components of the semiconductor index. The core driver of this momentum is the evolution of AI workloads from the training phase to the inference phase, which is restoring the importance of CPUs. Analysts note that the GPU to CPU ratio is about 8-to-1 in training tasks, drops to 3-to-1 or 4-to-1 during inference, and could approach 1-to-1 or higher in agentic AI scenarios.

Goldman Sachs recently initiated coverage on Intel with a Neutral rating and a $150 price target. The report indicated that Intel will benefit from rising server CPU demand, while its advanced packaging business is expected to make near-term progress as a U.S.-based foundry. The company's Data Center and AI segment generated revenue of approximately $5.1 billion in the first quarter of 2026, representing growth of over 20% year-over-year. Intel provided second-quarter revenue guidance of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion, with the Data Center business anticipated to achieve double-digit sequential growth.

However, Intel's foundry business is still absorbing massive investments, reporting an operating loss of roughly $2.4 billion in the first quarter. Market views on its valuation also diverge, as the stock's forward price-to-earnings ratio has climbed to around 100 times.