It was perhaps one of the more unexpected bits of news to happen in recent days that former CEO Pat Gelsinger of chip maker Intel (INTC) briefly returned, if only to the public eye, as opposed to Intel. But the latest reports had him not only looking to call attention to Intel’s current woes but also seeking divine help for employees. Gelsinger was recently spotted in a WCCFTech report, in which he appeared on X, formerly Twitter, to support his former company through what may be some of the darkest times yet.
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Earlier reports noted that the 18A process was not producing an outstanding yield rate. In fact, it looked downright disastrous. But Gelsinger came out in support, declaring the yield rate reports to be largely false. The reports featured Patrick Moorhead, an analyst who noted that the new Intel chips were not tested using a PDK 1.0 but, instead, an older-model design kit. This, in turn, Moorhead noted, was why yield rate figures were what they were, not because of anything Intel did.
That was when Gelsinger rang a note of support, declaring he was “…proud of the TD/18A team” and the “…progress they are making.” Gelsinger also asserted that the yield rate measurements were wrong anyway, as a “…large die will have a lower yield, smaller die – high yield percentage.” Gelsinger then declared, in response to analyst Dan Nystedt, that anyone “…using % yield as a metric for semiconductor health without defining die size doesn’t understand semiconductor yield.”
Help from Above
Then, in a report from MSN, Gelsinger did something almost unheard of: he called upon anyone reading his remarks to “pray…and fast…for the 100k Intel engineers as they navigate this difficult period.”
Such a play may have already worked in Intel’s favor, as a report from PC Gamer revealed that Intel researchers have managed to—brace yourself—“create a method for AI-generating frames in games without added input latency.” It is called the “holy grail” of frame generation because it uses extrapolation rather than interpolation. Since it can produce this effect without any kind of input lag, it represents an absolute win for Intel and may give it a serious edge in the gaming market.
Is Intel a Buy, Hold, or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on INTC stock based on one Buy, 22 Holds, and six Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 52.49% loss in its share price over the past year, the average INTC price target of $24.43 per share implies 17.34% upside potential.
