Intel shares continued to hold near multi-year highs around $132 on Monday as investors worked through the implications of last week's sharp rally following President Trump's announcement that Apple had agreed to manufacture chips domestically with the company. Trading activity remained elevated relative to recent sessions, with analysts split on whether the move represents a durable re-rating or a momentum trade still searching for confirmation.
Trump disclosed the arrangement in a Truth Social post last Thursday, sending Intel shares up roughly 9% in premarket trading before the stock extended gains to nearly 10% intraday. The announcement followed earlier Wall Street Journal reporting from early May that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary manufacturing agreement after more than a year of closed-door discussions, meaning much of the underlying thesis had already begun to be priced into the stock before last week's presidential restatement.
Neither company has issued a formal statement confirming contract terms, production volumes, specific chip models, or manufacturing timelines, a gap that has left some analysts cautious about chasing the move. Bank of America has maintained an Underperform rating on the stock even after the news, while other firms including Evercore ISI and Mizuho have grown more constructive, with price targets reportedly ranging as high as $124, levels the stock has already exceeded.
The deal's significance for Intel rests less on near-term revenue and more on credibility within the foundry business, where the company has struggled for years to convince outside customers its manufacturing can match Taiwan Semiconductor on yield and reliability. Intel's external foundry revenue totaled just $174 million out of $5.42 billion in total foundry revenue in the first quarter, underscoring how early-stage any Apple-related contribution remains. CEO Lip-Bu Tan has told analysts he expects formal foundry customer commitments to begin materializing in the second half of 2026, a timeline that puts Intel's July 23 second-quarter earnings call squarely in focus as the next concrete checkpoint.
Adding to the technical narrative, Intel disclosed last week that its next-generation 18A-P chip node has entered 'risk production' at the VLSI Symposium in Honolulu, an early manufacturing stage indicating the process is on track to meet customer qualification requirements. Industry analysts have noted that Apple's custom silicon, built on Arm architecture, represents a meaningfully different manufacturing challenge than Intel's traditional x86 production, and that Apple may be more likely to initially commit to advanced packaging work rather than full chip fabrication.
Intel's run in 2026 has been one of the most dramatic among large-cap US stocks, with shares up roughly 200% year-to-date, supported by six consecutive quarters of revenue beats and a US government equity stake of roughly 10% following an $8.9 billion investment last year. Trump has publicly touted the appreciation of that government stake, which he said has grown to more than $60 billion in value.
For investors, the central question heading into next month's earnings is whether the Apple relationship converts from preliminary discussions and presidential commentary into disclosed, signed contracts with specific volume commitments, the threshold analysts say is required to justify a valuation increasingly built on foundry transformation rather than current financial results.