Is Intel Stock a Buy Right Now?

Adam Spatacco, The Motley Fool

Sat, May 10, 2025, 2:45 PM 4 min read

• In recent years, many stocks in the chip space have witnessed parabolic rise in their share price.

• Intel stock has dropped more than 30% in the last couple of years and trades near a 15-year low.

• And yet, Wall Street doesn't appear to have much confidence in Intel's future growth prospects.

• 10 stocks we like better than Intel ›

For the last few years, companies across the technology sector have witnessed unparalleled gains thanks to the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. In particular, semiconductor stocks have experienced outsize gains thanks to the importance chips play in generative AI development.

Since ChatGPT was released commercially on Nov. 30, 2022, shares of Nvidia, Broadcom, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing have soared by 592%, 272%, and 110%, respectively. From a broader industry perspective, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF boasts a 93% total return over this same time period.

While it's been hard to lose money investing in the semiconductor space over the last two-and-a-half years, there are some notable laggards. Investors in Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) know this all too well, experiencing a 32% decline since ChatGPT's inception jump-started the AI roller coaster.

With shares of Intel trading near their lowest level in 15 years, is now an opportunity to buy the dip?

It's important to understand why certain semiconductor stocks have experienced generous gains while others have not. Nvidia, for example, specializes in designing graphics processing units (GPUs). GPUs are an important piece of hardware that are used to train AI models -- hence, Nvidia is playing an important role in how AI applications are created.

On the other hand, Broadcom's expertise surrounds equipping data centers with important pieces of network equipment as well as helping companies design their own custom chipsets. Lastly, Taiwan Semi brings the chips designed by Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Qualcomm, and many others to life through its market-leading foundry services.

While Intel is a fairly diversified operation, the foundry business in particular has been a source for concern over the last couple of years. In 2024, Intel's foundry segment generated $17.5 billion in revenue -- down 7% year over year. In addition, the company's foundry business posted an operating loss north of $13.4 billion last year -- nearly double the losses seen during the prior year.

During the first quarter of 2025, Intel generated $4.7 billion of revenue in the foundry segment. While this represented an encouraging 7% gain year over year, investors should be aware that management attributed some of this growth to revenue that was pulled in during the first quarter -- thereby guiding for some deceleration over the coming months.