Citi Hikes Intel Price Target to $130: The Agentic CPU Boom Reshapes the Story

2 days ago 7

David Moadel

Mon, May 18, 2026 astatine 10:29 AM CDT 4 min read

Quick Read

Intel (INTC) received a terms people rise from Citi to $130 from $95, based connected a caller CPU full addressable marketplace model that includes agentic AI workloads increasing 185% annually and driving the wide CPU marketplace to 35% yearly maturation to $132B by 2030.
CPUs are gaining strategical value successful the AI stack arsenic orchestration layers for autonomous agents, positioning Intel arsenic a structural beneficiary of the adjacent compute rhythm beyond GPU-centric architectures.
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Citi conscionable made a bold reassessment of the CPU communicative successful the AI era. Analyst Atif Malik raised the firm's terms people connected Intel to $130 from $95 and kept a Buy standing connected Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), citing an wholly caller full addressable marketplace model built astir agentic CPU workloads. For semipermanent investors, the telephone reframes Intel banal arsenic much than a turnaround trade. It positions the chipmaker arsenic a structural beneficiary of the adjacent AI compute cycle.

The terms people rise lands arsenic Intel shares commercialized adjacent $107. The banal has staged a melodramatic betterment disconnected of past year's lows.

Ticker

Company

Firm

Action

Old Rating

New Rating

Old Target

New Target

INTC	Intel	Citi	Price Target Raised	Buy	Buy	$95	$130

The Analyst's Case

Citi introduced a caller CPU full addressable marketplace exemplary that includes wide intent CPUs, AI caput nodes, and agentic CPU applications. Under that framework, the steadfast present sees the CPU marketplace increasing 35% annually to $132 cardinal by 2030, driven by 185% yearly agentic CPU growth.

The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 stocks. Get them present FREE.

The agentic CPU conception matters due to the fact that autonomous AI agents make monolithic orchestration and inference workloads that thin heavy connected CPUs, not conscionable GPUs. CEO Lip-Bu Tan made the aforesaid lawsuit connected Intel's past call, asserting that "the CPU present serves arsenic the orchestration furniture and captious power level for the full AI stack." Citi published a parallel TAM exemplary for Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), lifting its terms people connected AMD to $460.

Company Snapshot

Intel posted Q1 FY2026 gross of $13.58 billion, up 7% twelvemonth implicit year, with non-GAAP EPS of $0.29. The Data Center and AI (DCAI) conception grew 22% to $5.05 billion, portion Intel Foundry gross roseate 16% to $5.42 billion.

Management's Q2 FY2026 guidance calls for gross of $13.8 cardinal to $14.8 cardinal with non-GAAP gross borderline adjacent 39%. Strategic wins see Xeon 6 enactment arsenic big CPU for NVIDIA's (NASDAQ:NVDA) DGX Rubin NVL8 systems and a multiyear Google collaboration.

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