Intel (INTC) shares surged more than 12% on Wednesday and Thursday, hitting an all-time intraday high of $94.95, driven by a strong Q1 2026 earnings beat, bullish commentary from Jim Cramer, and growing investor confidence in the company's foundry turnaround strategy.
Intel posted Q1 2026 revenue of $13.6 billion, up 7% year-over-year, marking its biggest revenue beat in over five years. The company guided Q2 2026 revenue between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion, representing 7% to 14.7% growth compared to the same period last year. CFO David Zinsner attributed the strong performance to surging CPU demand, which supported better-than-expected margins.
Jim Cramer called the quarter “outstanding,” crediting CEO Lip-Bu Tan for a “profound cultural shift” at Intel, and stated that Intel and AMD will “do very well for the rest of the year” driven by CPU demand in the AI era.
Further fueling the rally, reports emerged that Google may consider Intel's EMIB (Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge) technology for future Tensor Processing Units used in AI workloads, while Apple is reportedly evaluating Intel's advanced 18A-P manufacturing process for future custom silicon designs. Neither company has confirmed formal agreements, but the prospect of major client wins significantly boosted sentiment.
Despite the optimism, Intel's foundry division reported $5.42 billion in revenue but posted a $2.44 billion operating loss, underscoring the high cost of scaling advanced manufacturing. Analysts cautioned that valuation levels may be pricing in future contract wins that have yet to materialize.
Intel's server CPUs are seeing their fastest new product ramp in five years, and the company is increasingly viewed not just as a legacy CPU provider, but as a potential manufacturing backbone for the AI era.
