Intel Stock (NASDAQ:INTC) Slips Despite Desktop Line’s Surprising Comeback - 2025’s Tech Twist
Intel's stock takes a hit just as its desktop division stages an unexpected revival—proving once again that traditional markets move in mysterious, often contradictory ways.
The Chipmaker's Paradox
While the desktop line surges back to relevance, shareholders aren't buying the hype. INTC shares dip as the market questions whether this comeback has legs or just represents another temporary blip in Intel's volatile trajectory.
Wall Street's skepticism echoes through trading floors—because when a legacy tech giant finally gets something right, you know it's time to check what's going wrong elsewhere.
Finance traditionalists might call this 'market correction.' Crypto natives call it Tuesday—another reminder why decentralized assets don't trade on boomer industrial cycles.
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Five years ago, one of the biggest processors in Intel’s lineup was the Comet Lake line. But, apparently, Intel has brought back Comet Lake with its release of the Core i5-110 processor. Reports note that Intel is marketing this chip under the Core Series 1 brand, which was mainly for mobile and Raptor Lake chips that were embedded. Now, Intel has the i5-110 and the Core 5 120 out in play as well.
The big draw, meanwhile, may not be so much in the revived chip itself so much as it is in the revived price tag. This is, basically, a five-year-old processor, reports note. But Intel is selling it at the same price it did five years ago: $200. But that too is prompting some objections, especially given that the i5-10400 is running between $200 and $210. Thus, Intel is offering up a value processor that is oddly short on value.
Abandon Ohio
Meanwhile, the Ohio project is starting to look a little tenuous for Intel. Despite several previous remarks suggesting that Intel still plans to maintain its presence in Ohio, the revolving door of Intel staffers seems to say otherwise. Intel’s Ohio One project has lost “…at least five…” major officials in the last few weeks.
Intel’s chief lobbyist in Ohio, Kevin Hoggatt, left for a new job with AndHealth. The construction site manager, Sanjay Patel, pulled out. Emily Smith, who handled Intel’s “…on-the-ground community affairs…” pulled out as well. Toby Starr, public affairs manager, and senior program manager for foundry construction Tom Marshall were also out. This may, of course, mean nothing. This could just be simple attrition that happened to hit all at once. But losing that many big names in unrelated causes suggests someone saw writing on a wall.
Is Intel a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on INTC stock based on one Buy, 25 Holds and three Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 27.94% rally in its share price over the past year, the average INTC price target of $22.34 per share implies 9.54% downside risk.
Disclosure
