Resigned investors took back just a little ground today as chip maker Intel (INTC) tries frantically to win the race for second place in the AI chip market. As a result, shares were down fractionally in Tuesday afternoon’s trading after it became clear that Nvidia (NVDA) was pretty much untouchable here.
Intel now believes that it can take a second-place win in the AI chip market. While its Gaudi 3 chip isn’t much of a match for the lineup coming out of AMD (AMD), Intel does believe that it can come from behind and take the second-place slot in the long run. As for Nvidia, its massive head start, along with a substantial chunk of the market now under its control, has pretty much ruled out any hope of Intel getting to the top.
Naturally, as more competitors emerge—like Intel and AMD—Nvidia will start to lose some ground. That’s particularly true if either can offer some bargain alternatives for price-sensitive projects. The good news for Intel, though, is that its foundry aspirations will give it another way to make headway in the market, serving as not just a vendor but also a producer.
But All Was Not Well in Intel Town…
That, however, was about the limit of good news today. Things are about to get tighter on China as new U.S. regulations are coming. Interestingly, Intel might have been at least partly to blame, according to reports. In fact, Intel is one of the largest investors in the Chinese market, especially when it comes to AI and chip startups. With the U.S. looking to limit China’s access to advanced AI technology, Intel may have drawn some fire onto itself by providing these firms with capital.
In other news, word from game developer Alderon Games revealed that Intel’s Raptor Lake line of CPUs may be outright “defective.” At least, that’s what Matthew Cassells, Alderon Games founder, had to say. In fact, Alderon outright jumped ship and switched to AMD processors as a result. Cassells noted that, following the switch, they were seeing “…100 times fewer crashes compared to Intel CPUs…”
Is Intel a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on INTC stock based on three Buys, 24 Holds, and three Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 0.77% rise in its share price over the past year, the average INTC price target of $38.02 per share implies 11.27% upside potential.
