Why Intel, Arm, and Other AI Chip Stocks Soared Today
Key Points
Autonomous agents are powered by inference, which requires a higher proportion of CPU-based computing.
Intel, AMD, and Arm all stand to benefit from higher CPU demand.
- 10 stocks we like better than Intel ›
Meta Platform's (NASDAQ: META) new Muse personal artificial intelligence (AI) agent is off to a fast start.
After being the most downloaded free iPhone app in the U.S. for the past three days, according to Sensor Tower, Muse has investors excited about a potential boom in AI agent-fueled sales of central processing units (CPUs).
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That, in turn, is driving up the stock prices of the leading CPU makers. Here's how some of the top AI chip stocks performed on Monday:
- Arm Holdings (NASDAQ: ARM), up 17%
- Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), up 12%
- Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD), up 10%
Image source: Getty Images.
Meta's Muse is grabbing investors' attention
Meta's new AI agent promises to quickly, easily, and securely perform multiple tasks for users, such as sorting email, booking reservations, and managing calendars.
Muse is more accessible than other popular agentic AI projects, such as OpenClaw. It's also backed by Meta's tremendous data collection and distribution capabilities, thanks to the social media giant's staggering 3.6 billion daily active users.
In turn, analysts believe Muse has the potential to attract hundreds of millions of users in the coming months. That would likely make it the most popular AI agent on the market.
AI agents are set to boost demand for CPU makers
While AI model training requires mostly GPU-based compute, agentic AI is powered more by inference, which requires a greater proportion of CPUs to handle tasks like planning and orchestration.
A forthcoming wave of agentic AI-powered applications is thus expected to drive demand for CPUs sharply higher in the coming years. ARM sees the server CPU market surging by 35% annually to $120 billion by 2030, while AMD predicts 50% annual growth to $220 billion by the end of the decade.
As the leading designers of CPUs and related infrastructure, Intel, AMD, and Arm stand to profit handsomely from these trends.
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Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Arm Holdings, Intel, and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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