Intel Corp.(NYSE: $INTC) is involved in the design, manufacturing, and sale of computer products and technologies, providing computer, networking, data storage, and communications platforms.
The company operates through various segments, including the Client Computing Group (CCG), Data Center and AI (DCAI), Network and Edge (NEX), Mobileye, Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics (AXG), Intel Foundry Services (IFS), and All Other.
The CCG segment focuses on platforms designed for a range of devices such as notebooks, 2-in-1 systems, desktops, tablets, phones, as well as wireless and wired connectivity products. It also includes mobile communication components.
The DCAI segment caters to cloud service providers and enterprise customers, providing solutions along with silicon devices for communications service providers and high-performance computing customers.
The NEX segment specializes in offering computing system solutions, spanning from inflexible fixed-function hardware to general-purpose compute, acceleration, and networking devices. These devices run cloud-native software on programmable hardware. The Mobileye segment is dedicated to developing driving assistance and self-driving solutions.
Stability AI Gets Intel Backing in New Financing
Stability AI, the UK-based open-source generative AI company, has recently secured funding from Intel, as reported by Bloomberg. According to sources familiar with the matter, Intel’s investment, provided in the form of a convertible note, is under $50 million (£41 million).
This funding, described as a “lifesaving” deal, closed last month and is expected to provide financial support to Stability AI during challenging times. The company has reportedly garnered interest from major venture capital and strategic investors in recent months, as mentioned by a spokesperson for Stability AI.
Intel’s decision to invest in Stability AI aligns with its recent announcement of building an AI supercomputer utilizing its Xeon processors and 4,000 Gaudi2 AI processors.
Stability AI, launched in 2021, is renowned for its Stable Diffusion text-to-image generating model software. The British AI startup has built a community of over 200,000 creators, developers, and researchers, with research hubs located globally.
These communities are actively involved in developing AI models applicable to various domains, including code, language, audio, imaging, 3D content, video, design, biotech, and other scientific research.
Despite recent challenges, including layoffs of senior employees, including the HR head, and reported disagreements with board representatives, including major backer Coatue Management, Stability AI continues to play a significant role in the AI landscape.
In October, Coatue Management exited Stability AI’s board, reportedly influenced by Intel’s latest funding. However, Intel declined to comment on this recent investment in Stability AI.
How Intel is Quietly Gearing up to Become a Player in the AI Arms Race
While Intel is not typically highlighted as a key player in the generative AI surge, it played a pivotal role in driving the personal computing revolution through its chip technology. The spotlight has often been on its competitor, Nvidia, which supplies the graphics processing units (GPUs) fueling models such as ChatGPT and Midjourney.
However, due to a shortage of Nvidia chips and their escalating prices, heavy dependence on one company for large model power is less than ideal, except, of course, for Nvidia.
In practical terms, enterprises utilize a range of AI models, many of which are smaller and more specialized than cutting-edge models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Meta’s Llama. Wary of sharing proprietary data with third-party models, numerous enterprises are opting to construct their own models using open-source code and hosting them on in-house servers. Intel positions its chips as well-suited for running these smaller, in-house models.
Intel has actively pursued enhancing the efficiency of AI models on its central processing units (CPUs) and hardware accelerators. Recently, the 55-year-old company conducted tests, subjecting its hardware to popular generative AI models against widely used MLPerf performance benchmarks, yielding competitive and progressively improving results.
Collaborating with an AI platform named Numenta, which draws insights from neuroscience to enhance AI model performance and power efficiency, Intel is jointly developing technology to optimize the efficiency of AI models on its Xeon CPUs.
$INTC Stock Price Forecast 2023-2024
Intel’s value commenced in 2023 at $25.80. As of today, Intel is trading at $40.61, indicating a 57% increase from the start of the year. The projected Intel price at the end of 2023 is $46.39, reflecting a year-to-year change of +80%. The anticipated rise from today to the year-end is +14%.
Looking ahead, in the first half of 2024, the forecasted Intel price is $46.55. Subsequently, in the second half of the year, the price is expected to increase by $6.62, reaching $53.17 by the end of the year. This signifies a +31% change compared to the current price.
Is $INTC expected to go up?
According to projections from 27 Wall Street analysts within the past three months, Intel has an average 12-month price target of $36.87. The highest forecast is $56.00, while the lowest forecast is $17.00. This average price target indicates a -6.45% change from the recent price of $39.41.
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