Why the Sudden Surge?
Volume spiked hard last week. Think of it like a dam breaking after months of pressure. CES announcements on new AI chips got everyone excited. Plus, analysts like KeyBanc jumped in with upgrades, calling it overweight at $60 target. But honestly, after years of stumbles, can we trust this? Feels shaky if chip demand cools.
Quick Financial Snapshot:
Market cap sits around $219 billion right now – massive for semis. P/E ratio? About 1,100x forward earnings, way above industry average of 25-30x. Crazy high, screams overvalued unless profits explode. Cash flow from ops improved to $7.7 billion last year, but free cash still lags. Debt's heavy at $49 billion, debt-to-equity near 0.45. Dividend yield? A decent 1.8%, paid quarterly. ROE bounced to 2% from negatives. Profit growth YoY? Up 21% net income, finally green after losses. Not bad, but foundry division bleeds cash. Watch Q4 earnings Jan 22.
Started in 1968 by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce – brainy guys from Fairchild. Moore's Law? His idea chips double power every two years. Took off with PC boom in 80s. Remember Pentium? Dominated. But smartphones killed their lead. Now pivoting to AI, foundries. Long road, man.
Business Model and Products:
Sells processors, mostly. CPUs for laptops like Core i7, server Xeon chips. Graphics with Arc. Big bet on foundries – making chips for others like TSMC does. Services? Cloud software, AI tools. Revenue mix: 50% client, 30% data center, rest foundry ramping. Tough competition from AMD, Nvidia. Still, AI boom could save 'em. Like betting on a comeback kid.
2026? Could hit $55 if foundry hits 20% margins. Analysts whisper $50-60. By 2030, $80 maybe, if AI eats the world. 2035? $120, assuming Moore's Law holds. 2040? Wild guess $200, but quantum computing might flip everything. These are dreams, though. Trap if recession hits.
