Intel’s Panther Lake Chip is Seriously Impressive. It’s Time to Buy the Stock

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) stock’s multi-year comeback might still have legs, especially as the firm looks to change things up under its new leader and CEO, Lip-Bu Tan. Though it’s just been one year into the man’s tenure as top boss of the former high-flying chip darling, the results really do speak for themselves, with the shares now up close to 130% since Lip-Bu Tan stepped into the CEO’s office.

In the long haul, the foundry business could transform Intel into an industry force that lowers the world’s dependence on Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE:TSM). That said, it’s going to take some time and plenty of CapEx to get to such a spot. In the meantime, Intel’s new chips will need to do more of the heavy lifting to pay off some of the hefty bills that come with building fabs across the country. With a hefty investment from Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) as well as the federal government, investors have every reason to believe the Intel comeback is for real this time.

Panther Lake really does pack a punch! It’s a sign that Intel’s back.

With Intel’s Panther Lake generation of chips clocking in some very respectable metrics, it feels like the old-time chip giant is poised to close the gap in a big way as some of its rivals look to make modest year-over-year improvements to the latest and greatest chips rather than the gigantic leaps made just a few years ago. Of course, investors have the right to be skeptical, especially since Intel has been playing from behind for quite some time. 

Whether we’re talking about the impressive integrated graphics that can run games like some of Nvidia’s lower-end consumer-grade RTX GPUs (think the 4050 series), the incredible battery life gains (lasting more than a day without a charge), the solid AI performance with its neural processing unit (or NPU), the impressive multi-core benchmarks, or the coolest-sounding name in the industry, it’s clear that the tides in the PC world might be turning back to have “Intel Inside.”

For your average consumer, the graphics performance and long-lived battery are the real stars of the show. And while the AI PC hype has since faded, I do think that investors also shouldn’t write off the NPU performance, especially as the AI revolution continues to gravitate towards the edge. In three years’ time, perhaps new PC buyers will be considering AI performance at the top of the list of things to consider. 

Intel’s road ahead hasn’t looked this good in a long time

As Intel’s newest chips look to do more of the heavy lifting while the foundry losses look to become less painful, I do see a scenario where the good times keep coming for Intel. Numerous sell-side analysts have already turned positive in the past couple of quarters.

And while Panther Lake is a very strong showing, it still seems to be underestimated, at least in my view. The big question is whether we’re at the start of a multi-year upcycle now that the 18A node has proven itself as worthy, and when AI PCs are really going to start lifting off the tarmac. With AI-induced inflation on memory and storage hardware, 2026 might end up being a quiet year for high- and mid-range PCs, as consumers look to upgrade on a budget. 

While the trajectory is the best it’s looked in a while, there’s still a great degree of execution risk. And there’s really not much room for a fumble, especially after the stock’s past-year climb. If Intel can continue operating at a high level under Lip Bu-Tan, it might be time to put “Intel Inside” in your portfolio before foundry bets really start paying dividends.