A little more good news came out for chip stock Intel (INTC), which it sorely needs much more of as it looks to take on the new year in an increasingly challenging environment. And it got those from a new connection with LG, who turned to Intel to augment its Gram and Gram Pro laptops. The news was good enough for investors, who sent shares up fractionally in Thursday afternoon’s trading.
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The current line of Gram laptops was solid enough, noted a report from The Verge, but Intel stepped in to offer up some processing power to give it some new artificial intelligence (AI) functionality. As a result, the 16 inch Gram Pro will now boast Lunar Lake Core Ultra V-Series processors, giving it access to Copilot Plus. The 17 inch Gram Pro and the 16 inch two-in-one, meanwhile, will instead put Arrow Lake processors to work.
And with all this new processing power, users get access to key features like “Gram Chat On-Device,” which turns to a “…small language model derived from LG AI Research’s EXAONE large language model.” That gives it somewhat limited functionality, but also does not require online connectivity. Users get access to the “Time Travel” feature, which allows quick access to content recently accessed. This includes websites, documents, and even videos.
The Near Term for Intel
But there may be good news elsewhere here, as Network World offered up a list of predictions for 2025. Topping the list was new president Trump “back(ing) off on tech tariffs,” and also ponying up the cash that Biden promised under the CHIPS Act. Given Trump’s connection to American manufacture, and vice president Vance’s hometown boy status in Ohio, it is a safe bet that Ohio will not go without government handouts on this one.
However, there is a challenge: the rising tide of AMD (AMD). 2024 did not deliver any major wins for graphics cards, noted XDA Developers. But with the rise of the Battlemage, 2025 looks like it may be a different story. But “price conscious gamers” will have a tough time in 2025 trying to choose from a wealth of options between AMD and Intel. And with CPUs also involved in the hunt, AMD and Intel will have a whole new battle to hash out, while gamers have perhaps their best year in a while.
Is Intel a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on INTC stock based on one Buy, 21 Holds and five Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 56.58% loss in its share price over the past year, the average INTC price target of $24.53 per share implies 21.56% upside potential.
