Yesterday, we heard about how chip stock Intel (INTC) is facing some major market share loss issues, as its competitors emerge with stronger products that Intel currently offers, and also branching out into fields that Intel was not seen to do likewise with. Now, Intel is making a comeback of its own with new, high-powered chips, and investors are responding. Intel shares were up nearly 2% in Tuesday afternoon’s trading.
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Intel rolled out a couple of these at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) event currently taking place in Las Vegas. The Core Ultra 200H and the Core Ultra 200HX both got shown off, representatives of the Arrow Lake family of chips. Now, these will be making their way to laptops and offering up some significant new power that should help Intel keep its bread-and-butter operations right where they should be.
The new chips are boasting up to 24 cores, which may not sound like much, but given that the previous generation of Lunar Lake chips topped out at eight, it is a very welcome sign. Moreover, reports note, the new line of Arrow Lake chips should deliver this power on a more energy-efficient basis than even the Raptor Lake chipsets did. That means better battery life for laptops, and lower power consumption for more stationary desktops.
18A Not Dead Yet
Though we have heard little in the way of good news about the 18A process at Intel, a new report from Tom’s Hardware offers some hope as well. Intel is actually starting to sample the new Panther Lake lineup with customers. Further, the new 18A chips should be ready for a full launch in the second half of this year.
Intel is already sending out completed samples, and plans for mass production to fire up later on this year. It is part of a larger project, noted a company statement, that will “…continue bolstering its AI PC product portfolio in 2025 and beyond as we sample our lead Intel 18A product to customer snow ahead of volume production in the second half of 2025.” There is a lot riding on the success of the 18A process, though early reports suggest that it may not be all it is cracked up to be. Currently, anyway.
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 57.61% loss in its share price over the past year, the average INTC price target of $24.53 per share implies 21.8% upside potential.
