Intel (INTC) stock has surged to open 2026, opening the door for plenty of price forecast upgrades on Wall Street. The stock is up 28% YTD already, and an even higher 147% since January 13, 2025. With INTC nearing $50, more price prediction revisions are on the cards. The latest upgrade comes from KeyBanc, which recently rated INTC stock as “overweight.”
Indeed, KeyBanc upgraded Intel (INTC) from Sector Weight while issuing a $60 price target. The firm expects “outsized” data center demand from hyperscalers this year to be a “significant tailwind” for Intel’s data center and AI revenue. Analyst John Vinh said in a note to clients Tuesday that Big Tech’s demand for chips and servers to power AI is leading to higher sales of Intel’s CPUs. He went on to add that his supply chain checks show Intel is “almost sold out for the year” in data center server CPUs and may raise prices on the chips. Additionally, the analyst also cited “significant progress” in Intel’s manufacturing business.
Meanwhile, other analysts on Wall Street remain on the fence about Intel’s potential, with some having lower forecasts. Rosenblatt, with a Sell rating, and Loop Capital, with a Hold rating, both have a price target of $25, reflecting caution.
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Additionally, Intel is up in part thanks to the company unveiling new processors and a social-media post from President Donald Trump praising Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan last week. Its latest earnings report also blew past analyst expectations, with revenue spiking by 15%, driven by robust demand for Intel’s data center solutions and AI accelerators.
Furthermore, Intel (INTC) is also up after the company launched its Panther Lake processor line at CES last week and picked up a bullish call from Wall Street. At the CES show in Las Vegas, Intel launched Panther Lake, its new laptop chip, as the first high-volume product made using its 18A process. Its successful partnership with Nvidia (NVDA) has also turned heads on Wall Street, with several top firms and analysts raising their INTC forecasts for the near future. The announcement solidified INTC as a top dog in AI in 2026, and a strong competitor against the likes of AI darlings NVDA and AMD.