Intel’s Vice President, April Miller Boise, sold 20k company shares worth $981,000 on February 2, 2026. The move came amid Intel’s struggle with supply shortages and low foundry yields. Mrs Boise holds 113,000 shares worth $5.5 million post-sale. The move trimmed her stake in the company by 15%.
The market showed a mixed reaction as INTC shares climbed 0.9% today to $49.25, but investors perceive long-term positions more risky now. Although Intel’s Q4 2025 earnings beat estimates, guidance for Q1 2026 disappointed investors, leading to a share price drop post-report.
Intel: A Semiconductor Giant Facing AI Crunch
Before the AI boom, Intel dominated the desktop and laptop CPU market with more than 90% market share. Their x86 CPUs continue to power most Windows-based systems in the world. But Intel missed the AI adoption big time as their Gaudi 3 AI accelerators failed due to software bugs and slow developer adoption.
At the inception of the AI boom, Nvidia stepped in with its superior GPUs and efficient software architecture that supported training AI models. Now, most AI models are trained on Nvidia GPUs, and it dominates 80-90% of the market. Now that the era of AI-PCs has broken out, Intel will struggle to keep its leading position in consumer PCs as well.
In short, Intel lost the AI datacentre game to Nvidia, and now it risks losing the consumer PC market to it. Aggressive expansion of AI data centres has shot up DRAM/HB costs, further straining Intel with bottlenecks and thin profit margins. It only has 1% share in the AI market and is still failing to meet the AI demand.
Intel’s Q4 Earnings Beat and Market Reaction
Intel’s Q4 revenue touched 13.67 billion, beating Wall Street estimates by 2.1%. But the Q1 2026 forecast of breakeven EPS shook investor confidence in short-term profitability. The guidance about supply struggles and reports on the low yield of its foundry had investors questioning Intel’s future position in the AI landscape. NVIDIA’s $5 billion investment served as validation for Intel’s 18A AI chips, but bottlenecks and inability to mass produce them efficiently are bleeding Intel of its cash and investor confidence.
Foundry Dreams
Intel split into product and foundry divisions in 2024 to supercharge its foundry dreams. The upfront investment and the long period for its return had short-term investors pulling during the split. Intel gained back its momentum and stock prices as investors started betting on Intel’s AI chips being successful.
But Intel’s foundry dreams were muddled as the chip production yield was around 25% lower than the industry standards. Intel’s yield was 55-65% while the industry standard was 80-90%. In effect, the company was wasting raw materials, machinery, and labour, squeezing margins tight and disastrously failing in matching the demand.
What is Next for Intel?
Wall Street has given Intel stock a hold rating. Morgan Stanley’s top analyst Joseph Moore sees a 16.75% downside with a target price of $41. Amanda Tan from DBS shares a similar projection with 18.78% with a target price of $40. Both analysts have rated the stock as a sell.
The Wall Street consensus from around 32 analysts is a downside of 1.89% with a target price of $48.32. The highest projected target is $66, while the lowest target is the support zone of $30. Intel’s trajectory will likely depend on the success of its foundry venture and critical AI partnerships.
