The Comeback Kid? Where Will Intel Be in 1 Year?

Rocky is a classic movie and one of my all-time favorites. Sylvester Stallone and Carl Weathers are great in it, and the soundtrack is legendary. Plus, who doesn’t love a good underdog story?

Well, a few months ago, I wasn’t so sure Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) had a Rocky-style comeback in it. I thought, with a high degree of certainty, that it was an over-the-hill company doomed to lose its title to its younger and more innovative competitors.

Will AI create the world’s first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an “Indispensable Monopoly” providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »

But, in light of the company’s first-quarter 2026 results, I think I might have been wrong. This old dog still has some fight in it yet.

Intel didn’t hear no bell

The core of Intel’s business has historically been chip design and manufacturing. It used to be Apple‘s go-to chip producer, but it lost that contract in 2020 and since then, its revenue had been on a decline and its margins have been shrinking.

And while the company’s net margin is still negative, its gross margin is up slightly from where it was at the end of 2025, and the company’s revenue appears to be on the mend.

Intel’s revenue for the quarter ended March 28 totaled $13.6 billion, up 7.2% year over year and $1.4 billion over the company’s prior outlook.

Its gross margin for the quarter was 41%, up 1.8 points year over year and 6.5 points above the outlook.

Finally, Intel’s earnings per share (EPS) was $0.29, up $0.16 year over year and much better than its projection to just break even.

The bulk of that revenue growth seems to have come from the company’s data-centric artificial intelligence (AI) segment, which grew 22% over Q1 2025, and the company’s foundry segment, which was up 20% sequentially.

The counterpuncher

That’s in line with Intel’s pivot toward being a semiconductor foundry company for other companies. More like a Broadcom or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing than what it has been in the past.

On April 8, Intel signed a multibillion-dollar contract to produce Amazon‘s custom AI chips, and that caused Intel’s shares to climb more than 3% when the news broke. According to IDN Financials, Intel is also in talks to do the same thing for Alphabet, Google’s parent company.

In addition, Intel is currently involved in a $100 billion plan to build more chip factories in the United States. It’s likely why the U.S. government bought $8.9 billion worth of Intel stock last August.

And, though it’s still early, it seems like Intel’s pivot toward becoming the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing of the Western Hemisphere is beginning to pay off.

While it might not be anywhere near knocking out its Taiwanese competitor, Intel certainly has a better chance of going the full 15 rounds like Rocky Balboa did with Apollo Creed.

So, where will Intel be in a year? It’s difficult to say, but at this early stage, it appears that it will likely be in a better place than it was in Q1 2025.

If Intel manages another quarter or two like this one then it will be worth looking into some long-term price projections. But as it stands, Intel has more fight in it than I thought.

Should you buy stock in Intel right now?

Before you buy stock in Intel, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Intel wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $496,473!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,216,605!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 968% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 202% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of May 4, 2026.

James Hires has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Broadcom, Intel, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The Comeback Kid? Where Will Intel Be in 1 Year? was originally published by The Motley Fool