Intel shares jump on HSBC note betting on the turnaround of the foundry business

Intel’s stock has surged about 233% year-to-date, and a fresh Wall Street note is urging investors not to dismiss the company’s push to make itself more than a chip designer. HSBC raised its price target to $200 from $100 while maintaining a Buy rating, according to a report circulated by TheFly and republished by Yahoo Finance.

The analysts’ core argument, as summarized in the report, is that Intel’s foundry business has become “too good to ignore.” In plain terms, a foundry is the contract manufacturing model where a chipmaker produces processors designed by others (as well as its own customers’ designs), turning manufacturing capacity into a revenue stream rather than treating it only as internal execution for Intel’s products.

HSBC’s action matters because price targets and ratings can influence near-term investor sentiment, particularly for stocks that have already rebounded sharply. When a stock has already delivered strong gains, analysts often face pressure to explain what, if anything, has changed in the underlying business outlook to justify additional upside.

The report does not spell out additional quantitative assumptions in the excerpt, but it frames the foundry business as the driver behind HSBC’s increased target. That framing aligns with how Intel has been positioning its strategy in recent years: shifting attention toward manufacturing capabilities and external customer demand, rather than relying solely on the cycle of Intel-branded processors.

For investors following the semiconductor sector, the foundry narrative is also a way to evaluate Intel against a broader industry question. In the current chip market, customers increasingly want predictable manufacturing access, advanced packaging, and production capacity that can support product roadmaps. A successful foundry business could therefore change how investors value Intel, because it would imply a more diversified path to earnings beyond CPUs for PCs and data centers.

Even so, the report provides limited visibility into the specific milestones or contracts behind the “too good to ignore” conclusion. It also does not indicate whether HSBC’s revised target reflects a change in near-term financial estimates, long-term margins, or a particular schedule for new manufacturing nodes and customer programs.

What to watch next is whether Intel provides more concrete updates around foundry customers, production readiness, and the pace of commercialization. In the near term, the market will likely focus on whether the stock’s momentum is supported by disclosures that translate foundry plans into measurable revenue, improving execution on manufacturing deliverables, and credible demand indicates. Without that, analyst optimism may remain sentiment-driven rather than fundamentals-driven.