A stock that has returned 404% in one year, surpassed dot-com era highs and still attracted new institutional money is not a story you see often. It’s rare, and that rare gem, Intel, is doing it right this time.
Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management, one of the most followed hedge funds on Wall Street with approximately $78 billion in assets under management, according to WhaleWisdom, initiated a new position in Intel (INTC) during the first quarter of 2026. The company acquired 1,638,700 shares valued at approximately $180 million, according to Tiger Global’s latest 13F filing.
INTC is up 194.77% so far this year and 404.73% over the past year, according to Yahoo Finance. Coleman isn’t chasing a story that’s coming to an end. He is making a conviction call that Intel’s recovery is still early and that the market is undervaluing what a revived American semiconductor giant means in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Why Tiger Global’s Coleman Started a $180 Million Intel Position
Tiger Global’s 13F for the first quarter of 2026, filed with the SEC, shows a company that is not making inroads. A new $180 million position in a single stock is a statement of genuine conviction, particularly for a fund whose largest holding is Alphabet and whose top 10 holdings represent almost 70% of its 13F holdings under management, WhaleWisdom confirms.
Intel’s thesis, as my review of the company’s recent developments suggests, is based on three concurrent catalysts arriving simultaneously for the first time in years.
The first is earnings momentum. Intel has now delivered six consecutive quarters of revenue above its own expectations, according to CEO Lip-Bu Tan on the company’s April 23 earnings conference call. First quarter 2026 revenue was $13.6 billion, up 7% year-over-year. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.29 erased the consensus estimate of $0.01.
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The second is the increase in demand for AI CPUs. Data centers are not just GPU stories. Intel’s Xeon processors handle AI inference and agent workloads that require general-purpose computing along with specialized accelerators.
The Intel-Google collaboration announced this quarter, which covers the continued deployment of Xeon on Google Cloud instances and the co-development of custom AI infrastructure processors, is no small partnership. Intel Xeon 6 is also not selected as the host CPU for Nvidia’s DGX Rubin NVL8 systems.
The third is the progress of the foundry. Intel repurchased the 49% minority stake in joint venture entity Fab 34 in Ireland during the first quarter, strengthening its balance sheet and manufacturing independence simultaneously.
Intel recently launched Xeon 600 processors for workstations, new Core Ultra processors for desktop and mobile, and Intel 18A-based Core Series 3 processors.Daniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty Images
Intel’s Q1 2026 results and Q2 guidance also show momentum building
The financial outlook from Intel’s April 23 earnings report:
Revenue of $13.6 billion, up 7% year over year
Non-GAAP EPS of $0.29
Cash from operations of $1.1 billion
Q2 2026 guidance of $13.8-$14.8 billion in revenue, non-GAAP EPS of $0.20 Source: Intel Q1 2026 Financial Results
“The next wave of AI will bring intelligence closer to the end user, moving from fundamental models to inference to agency,” Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said on the earnings call. “This change is significantly increasing the need for Intel’s CPUs and advanced wafer and package offerings.”
Intel Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner described unprecedented demand for silicon and disciplined execution to expand available supply. The company also joined the Terafab project alongside SpaceX, xAI and Tesla as a strategic partner, according to Reuters. This is a sign of Intel’s ambition to be at the center of next-generation chip manufacturing and not at its periphery.
Product cadence reinforces revenue trajectory. Intel launched Xeon 600 processors for workstations, new Core Ultra processors for desktop and mobile, and Core Series 3 processors based on Intel 18A, the advanced process node that will define the foundry’s competitive positioning in the coming years.
What Tiger Global’s bet on Intel means alongside broader institutional interest in the stock
Tiger Global is not the only sophisticated investor moving toward Intel’s turnaround. The confluence of AI CPU demand, foundry momentum, US semiconductor policy tailwinds, and a CEO in Lip-Bu Tan who has credibility among the engineering community is attracting institutional attention that simply wasn’t present when Intel was mired in manufacturing delays and market share losses.
Intel’s collaboration with SambaNova on a heterogeneous hardware solution, combining GPUs, SambaNova RDUs, and Intel Xeon 6 processors, is the type of ecosystem integration that creates lasting customer relationships rather than transactional hardware sales.
Related: TSMC predicts semiconductor market will reach $1.5 trillion by 2030
The Google ASIC co-development agreement goes even further, integrating Intel engineering directly into the hyperscaler’s infrastructure planning.
At 194% so far this year, Intel is not a cheap stock by historical standards. But my review of the trajectory of forward guidance (revenue grows from $13.6 billion in the first quarter to a midpoint of $14.3 billion in the second quarter, with gross margin expansion factored into the outlook) suggests earnings power is still rising.
Coleman’s $180 million position is a bet that the change is long-lasting, not over. And with six consecutive beats as a base, that’s not an unreasonable place to stop.
Related: Bank of America renews price target on Intel stock
This story was originally published by TheStreet on May 17, 2026, where it first appeared in the Investments section. Add TheStreet as a preferred source by clicking here.
