CNBC’s Jim Cramer used his June 11, 2026, “Mad Dash” segment on Squawk on the Street to deliver one of his most aggressive calls of the year, ranking Intel (NASDAQ:INTC | INTC Price Prediction) ahead of every other chip stock in his coverage universe. The catalyst was a dramatic analyst action that Cramer described as “a company which had been recommending a sale of Intel comes out and skips the hold and goes to the buy.” Shares made a big move, rising 9.27% for the day to close at $116.96 on Thursday.
The “Number One Name” Call
“I think that this is the number one name. I think it’s a more important name than Nvidia right now,” he said, inverting the usual AI-trade hierarchy that has favored NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) for most of the cycle. He pointed to Intel’s pattern of resurrecting after deep drawdowns: “Intel, every time it’s counted out… Intel was down about 29 in the second half. And here they are once again.”
“There’s no source of funds here for Intel. There’s just people recognizing it. It’s now cooled its heels, and it’s coming back,” Cramer said, contrasting Intel buying with the rotation pressure on crowded mega-caps. He capped the segment with the phrase: “The CPU comeback is remarkable.”
What’s Driving The Fundamentals
The numbers behind Cramer’s CPU comeback thesis showed up in Q1 FY2026 results. Intel posted non-GAAP EPS of $0.29 on revenue of $13.58 billion, up 7.2% year over year. The Data Center and AI segment grew 22% to $5.05 billion, and Intel Foundry expanded 16% to $5.42 billion. CEO Lip-Bu Tan framed the strategic backdrop, saying: “The next wave of AI will bring intelligence closer to the end user, moving from foundational models to inference to agentic. This shift is significantly increasing the need for Intel’s CPUs and wafer and advanced packaging offerings.”
NVIDIA itself made a $5.0 billion equity investment in Intel common stock, SoftBank added $2.0 billion, and the U.S. Government acquired a significant stake alongside $8.9 billion in CHIPS Act funding. Intel Xeon 6 was also selected as the host CPU for NVIDIA’s DGX Rubin NVL8 systems, tying the two companies’ product roadmaps together.
The Stock’s Setup
Intel is up 190.08% year to date and 384.78% over the past year, from a 52-week low of $18.96. The shares had pulled back 17.31% over the past month heading into Thursday’s upgrade, closing at $116.96 on Thursday, June 11. By comparison, NVIDIA is up 7.59% year-to-date at $200.79, with a market cap of $4.86 trillion, versus Intel’s $566.88 billion.
For reference, analysts’ average target price is $92.17, with 31 hold ratings still on the books against a smaller pool of buy ratings. The stock’s forward P/E is roughly 111x, reflecting how depressed earnings are expected to be while the foundry turnaround plays out.
Investors should keep an eye on whether analysts’ consensus price target migrates upward as more analysts follow the recent double upgrade. With 47 recent insider transactions trending toward buying and a composite sentiment score that has improved 15.73 points over the past week, the institutional reset Cramer is betting on appears to be in motion.
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