Intel surges after report links Google with 2028 TPU order for Intel’s foundry push

Intel shares rose sharply Monday, closing up 11.19% at $110.27 as investors weighed a new set of reports pointing to potential demand for Intel’s contract manufacturing business. The stock also traded heavily, with volume at about 135.1 million shares, roughly 9.1% above its three-month average, according to market coverage that tied the move to the latest AI supply-chain chatter.

The catalyst, according to the same coverage, was a reported large order involving Alphabet’s Google and Intel-made AI chips, alongside discussion that Nvidia could consider Intel as a backup manufacturer. The market reaction underscored how much of the semiconductor complex in 2026 is being priced around access to advanced manufacturing capacity, not just chip design.

Reuters, in a report attributed to The Information, said Google placed an order with Intel to manufacture more than three million tensor processing units, or TPUs, in 2028. TPUs are Google’s custom AI accelerators, built to speed up the matrix-heavy computations behind machine-learning training and inference. Google has previously described TPUs as custom chips designed specifically for running AI models at massive scale.

In the Reuters write-up, Nvidia was described as evaluating whether Intel’s technology could be used to make a future processor that would combine four graphics chips into a single unit, but without any confirmed order at the time of the report. Reuters also said Intel declined to comment, while Alphabet and Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and that Reuters could not independently verify the report.

For Intel, the significance is less about one announced milestone and more about whether hyperscalers treat Intel Foundry as a durable alternative as AI spending continues. Intel 18A is central to that pitch. Intel describes its 18A process technology as combining two manufacturing breakthroughs, including RibbonFET transistors and PowerVia backside power delivery, and positioning the node for foundry customers as part of Intel’s manufacturing roadmap.

Market commentary around Monday’s move suggested investors are looking for signs that Intel’s 18A can scale beyond internal products into meaningful outside foundry revenue. With advanced chip supply still strained, the idea that major AI players would qualify more than one manufacturing source could improve Intel’s odds of landing additional contracts, even if those contracts start as “reference” shipments or qualify-first arrangements.

Still, the uncertainty is substantial. The most concrete number in the report is the “more than three million” TPU figure for 2028, but the companies involved did not confirm the agreement publicly in the reporting, and details such as pricing, timing of production ramps, yield targets, and whether the deal represents a firm purchase commitment versus a qualification contract were not disclosed. The Reuters report also emphasized it could not be independently verified at the time.

What to watch next is whether any party puts specifics behind the claims. That likely means follow-through from Intel Foundry and any disclosures tied to major customers during upcoming earnings updates, as well as any public language from Google or Nvidia about production timelines and whether evaluation work turns into signed orders. Another near-term tell will be Intel’s ability to sustain 18A-related progress as it moves from early qualification to higher-volume manufacturing, because investors will treat each incremental milestone as a test of whether demand can translate into revenue.