AI Tailwinds Drive Intel’s Comeback: 9-Day Rally Hits Strongest Since 1970s

According to recent market data, shares of Intel (INTC) have surged sharply, closing up 4.52% on Monday and marking a ninth consecutive day of gains. The rally represents a cumulative increase of approximately 56%, the strongest performance over a comparable period since the 1970s, drawing significant attention to the company’s strategic transformation and expanding role in the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem.

Historical data shows that Intel last recorded a nine-day winning streak in September 2023, while its longer streak dates back to May 2005, when the stock rose for 13 consecutive sessions. The current momentum has been largely driven by a series of high-profile partnerships and investment developments, including an expanded collaboration with Google and participation in the Terafab AI chip initiative led by Elon Musk.

Intel recently announced a deeper partnership with Google, under which the latter will deploy Intel’s latest Xeon 6 processors to support AI training and inference workloads. This move is widely viewed as a critical step for Intel in re-establishing its position within the core AI infrastructure value chain.

In parallel, Intel confirmed its involvement in the Terafab initiative, a large-scale project proposed by Elon Musk to build an advanced AI chip manufacturing campus in Austin, Texas. The facility is expected to design and produce customized chips for companies such as SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla. Intel stated that its capabilities in high-performance chip design, manufacturing, and advanced packaging will support the project’s ambitious goal of achieving 1 terawatt (1 TW) of annual compute capacity, enabling next-generation AI and robotics applications.

On the capital front, Intel earlier this month repurchased the remaining stake in its Ireland-based wafer fabrication facility for $14.2 billion, signaling an improved balance sheet position. The company had previously sold a 49% stake in 2024, and the buyback is being interpreted by the market as a sign of strengthened financial health.

From a competitive standpoint, Intel continues to compete closely with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in the CPU market. Meanwhile, executives at NVIDIA have recently noted that as AI applications scale rapidly, CPUs are increasingly becoming a system performance bottleneck, highlighting their growing importance. Unlike many competitors that rely on outsourced manufacturing, Intel maintains a vertically integrated model—handling chip design and production in-house—which is regarded as a key competitive advantage in the evolving semiconductor landscape.