Intel's latest earnings report showed a surge in demand for central processing units (CPUs), leading to a significant increase in its stock price. The strong performance is attributed to the growing need for CPUs in artificial intelligence capabilities.
The numbers led investors to scoop up shares of another major chipmaker, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). AMD's shares soared more than 12% on Friday as Wall Street analysts were caught off guard by Intel's CPU performance.
D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria upgraded AMD to buy from neutral and hiked his 2026 revenue and gross profit margins. He also hiked his price target on the stock to $375, implying upside of 22% from Thursday's close.
Other analysts on the Street took notice of the CPU surge as well. Citi analyst Atif Malik upgraded Intel stock to buy from neutral, citing double-digit server CPU unit growth in 2026. Wall Street sees CPU makers and data center gear providers improving as a group, with AMD front and center.
Barclays' Tom O'Malley wondered whether Intel could lose market share to rival AMD. However, the analyst's downside case of $40 is based upon 47x their downside CY27 PF EPS of $0.85, which assumes greater share loss to AMD.
Intel traded around $81 early Friday.