This 55-Year-Old Stock Is Suddenly On Fire

One of the oldest tech companies around is once again looking very attractive to investors.

Shares of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) have known extreme ups and downs over the past decade. The company went public back in 1971 and enjoyed a massive run-up during the dot-com boom of the 1990s. It then dropped like a rock and traded sideways for a decade. In recent years, it has struggled; the stock price lost two-thirds of its value between early 2021 and early 2025.

Investors began to write the chipmaker off as a dinosaur in an age when companies like Nvidia and Broadcom became the industry leaders. But that may be changing.

Lately, Intel has been on a hot streak. Beginning on March 31, shares have rallied nine trading sessions in a row, adding more than $100 million in market value. As a result, the stock is up 76% in 2026. The winning streak was prompted by good news that indicates the company may have pulled off a remarkable turnaround.

This month, Intel signed on to participate in Terafab, Elon Musk's venture to build a chip fabrication plant for his Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI companies. This signals to investors that Intel is relevant once again and ready to compete with more recent semiconductor industry entrants.

Intel also recently announced a new partnership with Google's parent company, Alphabet. The search engine and AI giant has committed to using Intel CPU chips in its data centers.

Image source: Getty Images.

Finally, on April 1, Intel said it would repurchase the 49% share that investment firm Apollo owns in its Ireland fab facility. That's a sign that the company is financially stable once again.

Investors might wait to see the latest quarterly results

Of course, the proof of actual financial strength will come when Intel reports its most recent financial results. That will happen on Thursday, April 23. Investors will be watching that earnings report closely to see if all the good news is translating into positive momentum for revenues and profits.

Due to the recent rally in Intel's share price, the stock is also relatively expensive. Shares are trading at 122 times forward earnings. Compare that to Nvidia, an enormously popular stock that is trading at about 23 times forward earnings.

So, despite all the good news coming from Intel in recent weeks, smart investors might wait to see the company's latest results. There are lots of chipmakers to invest in -- it's not yet clear that Intel is the best one.

Investors interested in a diversified mix of large semiconductor and semiconductor equipment stocks should check out the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: XSD). It's up about 18% this year and 114% over the past 52 weeks.

Matthew Benjamin has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Broadcom, Intel, Nvidia, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.