Bank of America lifts Intel price target to $160 on foundry progress and AI outlook
The bank raises its 2030 industry total addressable market estimate to $2.7 trillion, citing Intel’s foundry advancements and server CPU potential despite near-term manufacturing uncertainties.
Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya has raised his price target for Intel stock to $160 from $135, maintaining a buy rating. The revision follows Intel’s strong year-to-date performance, with the stock gaining approximately 263.09% as of Tuesday, June 23. The upgrade comes despite a broader tech sector sell-off, during which Intel traded down 5.07% to $133.79.
The valuation is based on a 31x multiple of Bank of America’s 2030 earnings per share estimate of $6.24, discounted back two years. The firm also increased its 2030 total addressable market estimate for the semiconductor industry to $2.7 trillion, up from $2.3 trillion. Arya noted that the implied 2028 enterprise value-to-sales ratio of 10.7x is significantly above the historical range of 1.7x to 4x, a premium justified by long-term server CPU and foundry opportunities.
Key catalysts cited by the analyst include Intel joining Elon Musk’s Terafab project, an expanded partnership with Google for AI infrastructure, and a preliminary chip manufacturing agreement with Apple. These developments support the bank’s view that Intel is well-positioned in the semiconductor sector, which is rallying on the AI boom.
On the operational front, Intel Foundry confirmed that the Intel 18A-P node has entered risk production. This performance enhancement of the 18A node delivers 9% higher performance at equal power and is fully design rule compatible with the standard 18A node. Additionally, Intel Foundry and Cadence have expanded their collaboration to advance Design Technology Co-Optimisation for the Intel 14A node, aiming to deliver production-ready process design kits.
Intel has also strengthened its leadership structure, appointing Seok-Hee Lee as executive vice president of Intel Foundry to lead advanced packaging and system integration. Naga Chandrasekaran continues to lead front-end technology. Analysts project that Intel’s server CPU sales could reach $40 billion or more by 2030, representing roughly 25% of the $170 billion CPU total addressable market.
