Intel’s Computex Offensive Meets a Cold Shoulder: Nvidia’s PC Ambitions Weigh on the Stock

Intel launches Crescent Island AI inference chip and 288-core Xeon 6+ at Computex, but stock slides 4% as Nvidia's RTX Spark targets Windows PCs, underscoring structural challenges.

Intel arrived at Computex in Taipei with its most ambitious hardware lineup in years — a new AI inference chip, a 288-core server processor, and a partnership to run large language models on modest local hardware. Yet the market’s reaction was swift and unforgiving. The stock slid 4.1 percent to €93.97 on Monday, as investors focused on a single counterpunch from Nvidia: the announcement of “RTX Spark,” a processor targeting Windows PCs where Intel has long held sway.

The selloff erased much of a rally that had more than doubled Intel’s share price since the start of the year. Over the past seven days, the stock is now down 11.5 percent. The relative strength index sits at 18.9, deep in oversold territory, but the headwinds are structural rather than technical.

A Chip Designed for Inference, Not Training

At the heart of Intel’s counterstrategy is Crescent Island, its first major AI infrastructure launch under CEO Lip-Bu Tan. Built on the Xe3P GPU architecture, the chip is optimized for “agentic AI” — deploying already-trained models rather than training new ones. It supports data formats from FP4 to FP64, straddling fast inference and scientific computation.

The design deliberately sidesteps the high-bandwidth memory arms race. Crescent Island uses LPDDR5X, offers 160 gigabytes in its reference configuration (partners can scale to 480 GB), and draws about 350 watts. It slots into a standard PCIe connector and requires no liquid cooling, making it compatible with existing server racks. Intel is betting that this lower-cost, lower-complexity approach will appeal to enterprises running inference workloads at scale.

The move follows the failure of Intel’s earlier AI training chip, Gaudi, which sold poorly and whose planned successor was axed. Crescent Island is Tan’s first real test in reinventing Intel’s AI infrastructure story. Customer samples are slated for the second half of 2026, with broad availability not expected until 2027.

Xeon 6+ and a Local AI Partnership

Alongside the GPU, Intel rolled out its Xeon 6+ processors, codenamed Clearwater Forest. The flagship 6990E+ packs 288 cores and is built on the company’s 18A fabrication process. Intel claims the chip delivers roughly 30 percent more performance per thread than AMD’s competing product. Super Micro immediately announced 12 new server platforms based on the new Xeon line.

For the PC side, Intel partnered with Phison Electronics to enable large AI models on local machines. The solution pairs Phison’s memory expansion technology with Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 chips. In tests, a 26-billion-parameter model ran on a system with just 16 gigabytes of RAM — half the usual requirement — cutting costs and reducing reliance on cloud infrastructure.

Financials and the Valuation Conundrum

The numbers behind the headlines paint a mixed picture. Intel’s first-quarter revenue rose 7 percent year-over-year to $13.6 billion, with the AI and datacenter segment jumping 22 percent to $5.1 billion. Management guided second-quarter revenue in a range of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion. Yet the stock still trades at roughly 189 times forward earnings — a multiple that leaves no room for execution missteps.

Intel’s share of the server CPU market fell to 54.9 percent in the first quarter, down from 64.4 percent a year earlier, underscoring the competitive pressure from AMD and Arm-based alternatives. Analysts remain cautious. Mizuho maintained a neutral rating but raised its price target to $128, citing strong demand for agentic AI. Barclays stuck with Equal Weight and a $100 target — below the current price.

India and the Foundry Pivot

Outside product launches, Intel is pressing forward with manufacturing investments. Together with 3D Glass Solutions (3DGS Inc.), the company plans to build a $3.3 billion semiconductor substrate plant in Odisha, India. The facility will produce advanced glass substrates and high-density interconnects, with construction expected to take five to six years and create more than 1,800 direct jobs. The project is part of a broader push to diversify Intel’s packaging supply chain.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government retains a 10 percent strategic stake in Intel, a holdover from efforts to secure domestic chip production. That stake, alongside ongoing subsidies, gives Intel a long-term backstop against the cyclical whims of the semiconductor market.

The Software Gap Remains

Hardware alone, however, is no longer sufficient in the AI era. Nvidia’s CUDA ecosystem remains a formidable moat, and AMD is accelerating its ROCm software stack. Intel will need to prove that its software toolchain is mature enough to make Crescent Island more than a spec sheet winner. With CEO Tan scheduled to deliver a keynote on Tuesday, analysts will be listening for concrete steps to close that gap — because the market has already shown it is not impressed by silicon alone.