Intel's stock soars to a five-year high. This is what's driving its massive momentum.

MW Intel's stock soars to a five-year high. This is what's driving its massive momentum.

By William Gavin and Britney Nguyen

Intel was the second-best performer in the S&P 500 on Wednesday

Intel's stock is on a six-session hot streak.

A combination of broad market momentum and excitement over recent business developments has pushed Intel's stock to levels not seen in five years.

Shares of the chip company closed up 11.4% on Wednesday with a performance that was the second best among all the S&P 500 SPX components on a strong day for the market. The cease-fire agreement with Iran broadly boosted stocks, and shares of artificial-intelligence hardware companies saw especially strong gains as investors rotated back into riskier assets.

Intel's stock $(INTC)$ finished the session at $58.95, its highest close since April 23, 2021, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Shares of Intel are up 43.1% over the past six trading days, posting their largest six-session gain since February 2025 and one that partly reflects optimism around the company's new partnership with Elon Musk's chip-making venture.

"Now that we have an accumulation of positive news for the stock, and now for the market, Intel was like a coiled spring ready to go," Ken Mahoney, CEO of Mahoney Asset Management, told MarketWatch. "Even if the market goes back to its struggling ways, we still think Intel is going to trend higher slowly, as it has been."

Analysts think Intel's outsize gains on Wednesday may somewhat relate to continued excitement surrounding the company's role in helping Tesla $(TSLA)$ and SpaceX embark on a major chip-making effort known as the Terafab. Musk wants his Terafab to be capable of manufacturing a terawatt of annual compute capacity, and the parties announced their partnership early on Tuesday.

Intel is also reportedly in talks with Amazon (AMZN) and Google $(GOOG)$ $(GOOGL)$ to provide advanced chip-packaging services, according to Wired. Representatives for Amazon and Google did not immediately return a request for comment. Intel said it cannot comment on rumors.

Bob Lang, chief options analyst at Explosive Options, said Intel's Terafab partnership gives it "a huge footprint" on the future of AI development. It's also validating for Intel's foundry business, he said, and could help it attract other large partners and customers.

Another recent catalyst was Intel's announcement last week that it would repurchase Apollo Global Management's $(APO)$ stake in a joint venture related to its Fab 34 in Ireland. The move was cheered by Wall Street as one that could presage other attempts by Intel to take better control of its earnings power.

"You Gotta Think Intel is Crushing It," Melius analyst Ben Reitzes titled a report to clients earlier this month. He noted that the company presumably is doing well if executives forked over more than $14 billion to buy "49% of something they sold under duress."

See: The cease-fire mirage: Here's why stock-market bulls may already be getting ahead of themselves

-William Gavin -Britney Nguyen

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April 08, 2026 16:56 ET (20:56 GMT)

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