Intel stocks have climbed to their highest since January 2022 ahead of the company’s earnings report.
The company’s stocks soared 11% and surpassed the US$54, reaching an intraday high of $54.13.
This continues a rally that lifted it 84% last year, bringing its gains over the past 12 months to 149%.
“It’s the most optimistic, I think, people have felt about the company in a long time,” said Ryuta Makino, an analyst at Intel investor Gabelli Funds.
The optimism for the company comes from strong sales of Intel’s latest server chips, which analysts believe are benefiting from rising spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Intel is also getting a boost from recent indications that the company’s foundry business, which is still seeking an anchor customer, could start to secure orders and become the No. 2 chip foundry behind Taiwan Semiconductor Co and ahead of Samsung.
The U.S. government has also become the chipmaker's largest shareholder after an investment of $8.9 billion last year. This is partially because it is the only American company capable of making advanced chips.
The government’s stake grew to $14 billion since the deal was agreed to in August, and Nvidia’s stake increased by more than $6 billion since its investment in the following month.
Estimates by Investopedia place the December quarter revenue at $13.4 billion, which would be a 6% drop year-over-year.
Analysts also predict that Intel stock could move up to 8% in either direction by the end of the week.
The Q4 earnings report is set to be a test for Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who was appointed in March, and who has since slashed costs, cut jobs and reorganised the leadership structure.
Despite this, data centre and AI sales are expected to surge around 29% to $4.4 billion.
Other chip stocks also rose on Wednesday, including Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices, which rose 8% and memory maker Micron Techinology which rose 7%.
At the time of writing, Intel (INTC: NASDAQ) stock rose 11.72% to US$54.25. In after-hours trading, it rose 0.87% to $54.72.
