Intel has been the ghost at the feast for much of the artificial-intelligence boom, but investors have finally found a reason to load up on shares.
Nvidia said Thursday that it would invest $5 billion in the chip manufacturer. Intel stock soared 23%, its biggest same-day percentage jump in nearly four decades.
The deal solves some problems for Intel, but probably not enough to merit a $28 billion surge in valuation. The company is still lagging behind rival Taiwan Semi in manufacturing, and it’s yet to find the big outside customer needed to move its business forward.
Even so, the news—along with a delayed reaction to Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting—helped power the three major U.S. indexes to fresh record highs. It speaks to the market’s positive state of mind.
No wonder Wall Street is feeling cheerful. The Fed has started cutting interest rates and the AI investing craze is still booming, with stocks including Oracle and Micron emerging as new star names.
The Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs are a worry for the market—but there’s optimism on that front, too. U.S. and Chinese negotiators reached a framework agreement to save TikTok this week, and a phone call between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, expected Friday, may pave the way for a broader trade deal.
Intel’s surge is a reminder that investors are currently happy to pile into any bit of good news, particularly now they’ve got over the worst
of their fears about the Fed and tariffs.
That means that, barring an unforeseen plot twist, the story for markets the rest of 2025 is likely to be all’s well that ends well.
—George Glover
|
CONTENT FROM: Nuveen
|
Invest like the future is watching.
|
|
|
With a prevailing perspective on the future, we’re driven to innovate and adapt to the changing needs of investors around the world while pursuing lasting performance for our clients. See how our history of looking forward continues to shape tomorrow’s portfolios.
Learn More
|
|
|
Intel Gets a $5 Billion Boost From Chip Rival Nvidia
In a surprise move, AI chip leader Nvidia is taking a $5 billion stake in Intel, which will build custom central processing units that Nvidia will integrate into its artificial-intelligence infrastructure platforms. Intel also
plans to build circuits that integrate Nvidia hardware, used to power a range of personal computers.
- Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan told reporters it aims
to strengthen its balance sheet. The deal comes after the Trump administration took a 10% stake in Intel, buying $8.9 billion of shares, becoming its largest shareholder. Thursday’s deal solves some problems for Intel, but it doesn’t address its manufacturing technology.
- The first thing Intel gets is more cash that it needs for capital expenditures. The company has put significant delays on planned construction, curtailing capex in 2025 by 25% in the first half of the year. The capex is a necessary ingredient for Intel’s plans to catch up to Taiwan Semiconductor.
- The Trump administration wasn’t involved in the Intel-Nvidia deal, an official told Barron’s. Intel has been struggling with its foundry business, saying in July it had been unsuccessful getting significant external customers.
- The arrangement also helps Intel in the data center business, where the company’s CPUs long dominated inside servers. But AI demand has changed the equation, with hundreds of
billions of dollars in new investment going primarily to Nvidia’s GPUs used for AI computing.
What’s Next: Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang indicated Nvidia would continue using Taiwan Semiconductor as its primary foundry. But Tan added that the companies would decide whether Intel’s foundry could factor into the partnership at a later date.
—Adam Levine and Mackenzie Tatananni
Live Nation Sued Over Ticket Resale Practices, Fee Disclosures
Amid a continuing crack down on high event ticket prices, the Federal Trade Commission and seven states sued Live Nation Entertainment over ticket resales and fee disclosures, saying it failed to enforce limits that allowed brokers to scoop up tickets and sell them at significantly higher prices.
- In the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Central California, the FTC and the attorneys general from Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia accused Live Nation’s Ticketmaster of deceiving consumers. A Live Nation representative didn’t respond to a request for comment.
- Live Nation is the largest U.S. live entertainment company, and Ticketmaster is the largest seller of concert tickets, controlling 80% of major concert venues’ primary ticketing and a growing share of secondary tickets. Consumers bought more than $82.6 billion in Ticketmaster tickets from 2019 to 2024.
- While publicly saying they prioritize getting tickets to fans and blaming ticket scalpers for high ticket prices, the lawsuit cites internal Ticketmaster communications that acknowledge executives “turn a blind eye” to brokers’ violations of ticket limits.
- The FTC said
Ticketmaster failed to disclose mandatory fees of up to 44% until the very end of a transaction, while company executives acknowledged internally that disclosing total costs upfront would make consumers less likely to buy. Those fees totaled $16.4 billion from 2019 to 2024.
What’s Next: The FTC alleges that the practices violate prohibitions on deceptive marketplace practices and the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, and is seeking civil penalties and monetary relief.
