Intel and AMD Rise 4% as JPMorgan Upgrades INTC After Steep Pullback; NVIDIA Edges Higher

A bearish Wall Street call on the chipmaker just came off the board, and chip stocks are rallying alongside it. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC | INTC Price Prediction) stock is up 4% to $93.68 this morning. Those gains follow a steep slide in Intel stock from its June peak, so the bounce starts from a lower base.

Meanwhile, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) stock is up 4% to $547.23. NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock is up 2% to $217.97, a softer rise than Intel stock or AMD shares. AMD competes with Intel in central processing units (CPUs) and with NVIDIA in artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) is up 3%, a sign of how broad the bounce runs. Large-cap tech is moving more slowly, with the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) up 1.32%.

JPMorgan Ends Its Bearish Stance on Intel

JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur upgraded Intel to Neutral from Underweight in a note. A Neutral rating sits in the middle of the road, closing out a bearish call and framing the gain in Intel stock as a reassessment after its pullback.

Execution in Intel’s core client and data center computing markets, and in next-generation manufacturing, has improved since Lip-Bu Tan became CEO, Sur stated. He expects agentic AI workloads, which lean heavily on central processors, and a tight supply chain for leading-edge chips to drive positive earnings estimate revisions for Intel.

The note carries a caution, though. Sur expects a few more quarters of market-share losses for Intel, especially in server processors. His conclusion is that the risk and reward in Intel stock look more balanced after the steep pullback.

Integrated Chipmaking Sets Intel Apart

Intel designs and manufactures its own processors and is building a contract foundry business. NVIDIA and AMD design chips and rely on outside foundries to manufacture them. That split ties Intel’s results to factory execution as well as chip design, which gives Sur’s comments on next-generation manufacturing extra weight.

Two product groups anchor Intel’s chip business. The Client Computing and Physical AI Group sells processors for PCs, laptops, edge AI and robotics, while the Data Center and AI group supplies Xeon server processors for cloud and enterprise workloads. On the manufacturing side, Intel Foundry offers process technologies including Intel 3 and Intel 18A, along with advanced packaging, for internal and outside customers.

Sur’s agentic AI argument lands squarely on Intel’s server business. Xeon chips compete with AMD’s EPYC processors for data center workloads, while NVIDIA builds accelerated computing platforms such as Blackwell Ultra and Vera Rubin for a separate layer of AI infrastructure. A tight leading-edge supply chain could favor a chipmaker that owns its factories, although Intel still has to convert that capacity into server share (the power, cooling, and networking suppliers riding the same expansion sit outside the chipmakers, and we rounded up seven of them in a free report: here).

Intel stock is outpacing AMD shares and the iShares Semiconductor ETF by only a slim margin, so part of that move tracks a broader chip rallying. NVIDIA shares trail the group, and semiconductors are leading large-cap tech.

Intel’s Third-Quarter Report Becomes the Next Test

Third-quarter 2026 results from Intel are scheduled for release after the market closes on October 29, a date the company hasn’t confirmed. The next test for Intel is whether that report supports the positive earnings estimate revisions Sur expects.

Upside for Intel stock could come from a stronger data center outlook and steadier progress on next-generation manufacturing. Continued server share losses, which Sur expects to persist for a while, mark the clearest risk to the rebound.

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