Shares of Intel Corp. jumped significantly during the afternoon session in the US market after a wave of positive sentiment swept through the semiconductor sector, fueled by analyst price target increases and optimism about artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure spending. Investor sentiment was further bolstered by strong earnings reports from other industry peers, strengthening expectations for enterprise spending on hardware.

Intel’s stock was trading approximately 7.2% higher from its previous close, driven by Cantor Fitzgerald raising its price target on the company’s shares to $150 from the previous $90, citing robust demand in the AI field.

The recent price surge to $140.33 per share secured a new 52-week high for the processor maker, with the stock delivering an impressive 256% return since the beginning of the year. Investors who allocated $1,000 into Intel shares five years ago have now seen their investment grow to a value of $2,500.

Intel overcame recent pressure on the semiconductor complex, which was recorded a week earlier following reports that South Korea’s SK Hynix was slowing its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) capacity expansion. An additional driver for Intel came from a Wells Fargo analysis regarding its rival AMD, noting a potential market shift from graphics processors (GPUs) to central processing units (CPUs) for AI inference workloads, a trend that directly benefits Intel’s core business.