Intel’s positive performance today is largely driven by growing institutional confidence in its foundry services division and the successful ramp-up of its next-generation process nodes. Market reports suggest that the company has secured a significant long-term agreement with a major cloud service provider for its 18A manufacturing process, validating the long-term IDM 2.0 strategy. This technological milestone is critical, as it signals a credible ability to compete directly with leading global foundries in the high-performance computing and AI accelerator markets.

Investor sentiment is also being bolstered by the broader rollout of AI-integrated personal computers. As the refresh cycle for enterprise hardware accelerates, the latest…