Intel Stock Rallies 490% as CEO Lip-Bu Tan Pushes Turnaround Despite TSMC Yield Gap

Intel’s stock has risen 490% over the past year as investors bet on CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s turnaround, even as the company’s chip manufacturing yields still lag behind industry leader TSMC.

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Tan took over in March 2025, and Bloomberg’s deep dive described him as spending much of his first year “schmoozing rather than restructuring.”

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The gap is tied to chip “yields,” the percentage of usable chips from each silicon wafer, which MEXC’s reposting of BitcoinWorld says still trail TSMC, and closing it “requires years of investment in new fabrication processes and equipment.”

While the rally reflects optimism about manufacturing expansion and AI chip ambitions, TechCrunch framed the central question as whether execution follows the Wall Street bet, noting “Tan has been light on specifics internally.”

Multiple outlets tied the turnaround narrative to Tan’s deal-making, including a “sweetheart deal with the U.S. government” that is now Intel’s third-largest shareholder, and preliminary manufacturing agreements with both Apple and Tesla.

TechCrunch said Tan locked in a “sweetheart deal with the U.S. government (now Intel’s third-largest shareholder),” while also reporting he was “cozying up to Elon Musk on a factory partnership.”

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Yet employees described internal uncertainty, with BitcoinWorld saying Tan has been “light on specifics about how he plans to close the gap,” and that teams have reportedly adjusted missed deadlines rather than recovering from them.

Boursorama’s Reuters machine translation added that Intel said its yields were “improving month by month,” even as it noted that only a small percentage of chips produced via 18A were good enough to be made available to customers.

As Intel’s turnaround story plays out, TradingView reported the shares surged around 8% on Friday to a fresh all-time high of $118.75, with optimism tied to its AI positioning and turnaround strategy.

TradingView also said Intel reported revenue of $13.6 billion, up 7% year-on-year, and adjusted earnings per share of $0.29, while Lip-Bu Tan told investors that “the next wave of AI will bring intelligence closer to the end user.”

Boursorama’s Reuters translation said Intel was expected to report more than a 30% increase in revenue from the data-center segment to $4.43 billion for the quarter ending December, while also citing UBS’s view that PC demand could decrease due to rising memory prices.

Still, the same Reuters translation warned that under pressure from poor yields, Intel’s adjusted gross margin was expected to have fallen by about six percentage points to 36.5% in the December quarter, keeping the stakes tied to manufacturing performance rather than headlines.