Catenaa, Sunday, December 21, 2025- Intel got a new CEO and won massive investments from the US government, Nvidia, and SoftBank in 2025, which sent its shares over 86%.
The US chipmaker saw developments that helped push the stock up 86% for the year, ahead of gains for the “Magnificent Seven” Big Tech stocks and Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices.
At the same time, Intel’s crucial manufacturing segment still lacks a major external customer, something it needs to make the cash-bleeding business viable.
The company’s technology is largely responsible for the digital revolution and Silicon Valley’s reputation as a global innovation hub: Intel invented the world’s first microprocessors, or computer chips, and the x86 architecture, a critical blueprint for designing computer chips.
The company has continued to make its own computer chips, even as the rest of the industry has gone “fabless” — outsourcing manufacturing to firms like Taiwan’s TSMC.
As its chips, CPUs for servers, laptops, and desktops, have lost market share to rivals AMD and Arm, its manufacturing business has been stripped of the scale it needs to remain viable.
The arrival of Lip-Bu Tan, who was named chief executive in March following the board’s ousting of Gelsinger in late 2024, began to renew faith in the company’s potential turnaround.
While Intel’s strategy remains mostly unchanged under Tan, analysts explained, investors have applauded his sober tone, cost-cutting measures, and wide-ranging industry connections.
That tepid faith transformed into confidence when the US government made a rare $9 billion investment in the company, albeit funds Intel was supposed to get anyway from the Biden-era CHIPS Act — following Tan’s tiff with President Trump over the CEO’s business ties to China.
But analysts say the US government’s 10% stake in Intel could lead to various positive outcomes for the company, such as Intel having a say in trade policy that affects semiconductors.
More importantly, the US could step in to incentivize or force a major company like Apple to use the chipmaker’s foundry.
A $2 billion investment from SoftBank and $5 billion from Nvidia further boosted investor sentiment on Intel stock.
