Intel stock up 25% in last 5 days on CPU demand as AI agents gain traction

Intel ( INTC ) stock has been on a roll over the last five days as the semiconductor industry continues to benefit from the AI boom amid continued interest in agentic AI across the enterprise and consumer markets.

Shares of Intel were up a staggering 25% over the last five days as of early Tuesday. Last week, CEO Lip-Bu Tan said during an appearance at the AI Infra Summit that central processing units (CPUs) are in high demand due to reinforcement learning, agentic AI, system-level orchestration, and their general-purpose usefulness.

CPUs have become a critical component in AI data centers after initially being perceived as also-rans compared with graphics processing units (GPUs) that train and run AI models. But with the advent of AI agents, CPUs have taken on a new level of importance.

That's because while GPUs run AI models that power agents, CPUs are the chips that enable agents to perform tasks such as navigating websites, shopping online, and more.

Meta's ( META ) new Muse AI agent has quickly become a hit , with market intelligence firm Sensor Tower reporting 2.5 million downloads since Muse launched on Sept. 8.

Intel is also reportedly expected to raise the price of its CPUs 10%, according to a report by Digitimes .

Intel is in the midst of a broader turnaround seeking to reestablish itself as a leader in the advanced semiconductor space. It's also working to build out a third-party chip manufacturing business that would go head-to-head with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company ( TSMC ).

In June, The Information reported that Google chose Intel to manufacture its custom Tensor Processing Units. Nvidia is also looking at leaning on Intel as a backup chip builder.

More recently, Reuters reported that SK Hynix is in talks with Intel for the semiconductor fabricator to produce memory chips.

Shares of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel have been on a roll over the last five months, climbing 159% and easily outpacing Nvidia's ( NVDA ) 49% growth during the same period. Rival AMD ( AMD ), however, rose 180%.

Move out further, though, and Intel grabs the lead. Over the last 12 months, the company's stock is up 314%, versus AMD's 293% growth. Nvidia has jumped 29%.

Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley .