No One Wants Their Fab Space But Intel Shares Are Still Selling
Intel, the company now famous for losing ~60% of it’s stock value in 2024, has found someone willing to give them a bit of a cash infusion. Softbank just picked up $2 billion worth of Intel common stock at $23 per share, which accounts for 2% of the total stock. This had one immediate effect, Intel stock is up to just over $25 which means if the US Government intends to buy up a chunk of Intel stock it will cost them a bit more than it would have yesterday. The rumours are that Softbank is looking to diversify their AI investments and Intel was an affordable addition.
This hasn’t helped with one of the root causes of Intel’s disastrous year, the fact they can’t find any customers for their new fabs. Historically Intel only fabbed chips for themselves, but they did venture into the fabrication of ARM based chips. So far, everyone seems to prefer TSMC over Intel and that has disembowelled their profits. We will see what effect Softbank becoming one of the 10 largest Intel shareholder has in the coming months and years.