Intel stock (NASDAQ: INTC) surged nearly 10% on Wednesday, as investors cheered the company’s unveiling of its Core Ultra Series 3 processors, the first consumer chips built on Intel’s 18A manufacturing process.
The rally, triggered by a combination of CES product wins and a fresh analyst upgrade from Melius Research, signals renewed confidence in Intel’s manufacturing roadmap.
With over 200 PC designs lined up and first laptops shipping this month, Wall Street is asking whether this product cycle marks the start of a sustained rerating.
What Intel announced at CES and why it matters
Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3, codenamed Panther Lake, represents a critical milestone: proof that the company’s 18A process actually works at scale.
The new chips feature up to 16 CPU cores, a redesigned Arc B390 graphics chip with 12 Xe3 cores (up 50% from the prior generation), and a dedicated 50-TOPS neural processing unit optimised for on-device artificial intelligence tasks.
Intel claims the top SKUs deliver up to 60% better multithreaded performance, 77% faster gaming, and up to 27 hours of battery life on the Lenovo reference design.
The real news isn’t just performance.
Intel announced that Series 3 will power over 200 PC designs from partners including Acer, ASUS, HP, and Lenovo, with preorders starting immediately and full availability by January 27.
For the first time, Series 3 chips are also certified for embedded applications like robotics and smart cities, a market worth billions.
This matters because it shows OEM confidence translating into actual design wins, not just demo units gathering dust after trade shows.
Jim Johnson, the head of Intel’s Client Computing Group, framed Panther Lake as the proof of Intel’s manufacturing redemption.
For years, Wall Street dismissed Intel’s 18A roadmap as vaporware. Now, the company is shipping it.
Intel stock: Analysts, investors and the risks
The 10% jump reflects more than product hype.
Melius Research upgraded Intel to “buy” with a $50 price target, citing potential foundry wins and opportunities for Nvidia and Apple to use Intel’s 14A node by 2028–2029.
That upgrade, combined with positive OEM commentary and evidence of high-volume production, convinced algorithmic traders to pile in.
Volume surged to 77.9 million shares, well above the 65-million average, signaling real institutional participation, not just retail FOMO.
But skeptics are right to pump the brakes.
CES product announcements routinely precede revenue by quarters, sometimes never delivering on hype.
Intel faces stiff competition from AMD’s latest Ryzen chips and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Plus, which already have real market traction.
More critically, Wall Street’s consensus rating remains “hold,” not “buy,” and Melius is the outlier, not the norm.
Valuation is another risk: at current levels, Intel trades at a steep premium to historical multiples, betting that foundry, Panther Lake shipments, and AI PC acceleration all materialise.
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