Today, a $1,000 investment in Intel Corporation (INTC), made a decade ago, would be worth approximately $823, or a loss of almost 18 percent, thus portraying one of the most tragic downfalls witnessed in the annals of Silicon Valley history, while the erstwhile leader in chips found it difficult to cope with a fast-changing technology market and competition.
The numbers paint a grim picture
An alleged investor purchasing Intel stock on September 8, 2015, at $29.50 a share will have purchased 33.90 shares for their $1,000 investment. As of September 5, 2025, those shares again will be worth $24.28, giving a total portfolio value of $823.05.
Total return has been negative 17.69%, or an annual loss of 1.93%, for this almost 10-year period. The investment has, by large margins, lagged behind major market indices. The S&P 500 whizzed past and turned in positive returns of about 180% on these very factors in that same time frame.
But it has not always been gloomy. The peak price of Intel shares on January 24, 2020, stood at $69.29, transforming this initial investment timeline into $2,348.81-a phenomenal gain of as much as 134.88%. Sadly, investors who held from that point onward witnessed a near-erasure of value with a crushing 65% drop in the interim five years.
The perfect storm of challenges for Intel
Intel’s problems have arisen from a perfect storm of manufacturing delays, competitive infringements, and bad decisions beginning in earnest about 2016. Struggling with long delays in getting from 10-nm technology to 7-nm, the troubles became pronounced, and AMD capitalized on TSMC technology.
On July 23, 2020, Intel declared that its 7-nm technology was at least a year behind schedule, drawing in consequences that resulted in the largest single-day stock price drop in decades, a greater than 16% plunge in one session. Furthermore, the announcement pushed Intel to consider, for the first time, the creation of some of its flagship CPU products using external foundries.
Simultaneously, AMD was roaring back and fundamentally changing the competitive landscape. Having languished for too long in the shadow of Intel, in March 2017 AMD introduced its very successful Ryzen microprocessor. At that time, Ryzen was marketed more as a price-performance counterpart to high-end CPUs, competing on grounds of performance with Intel’s best chips. By 2021, AMD had captured nearly 40% of the total CPU market as opposed to 23% in 2019.
Past downtrend and pattern of recovery
The stock performance of Intel over the last decade represents a classic rise-and-fall story. The early years showed promise as the stock rose from $29.50 in September 2015 to above $47 peaks by 2018. The demand for PCs and data center processors was particularly buoyant and had supported the firm during this period.
The stock price soared to $69.29 in January 2020, driven by optimism around Intel’s roadmap recovery and opportunities in emerging markets like AI. However, that peak would become a turning point into a lengthy decline that is still ongoing as of 2025.
The key milestone analysis shows just how volatile an investment that was: It would have been worth $1,617.63 in 2018. By the 2020 peak, it was $1,697.63. Its downward journey quickened after that, as its worth fell to $1,029.15 in 2222 and southwards to $657.63 by 2024.
Competition and market share erosion
Intel has been steadily eroding its market share-ESG0by competitors on multiple fronts. Advanced Micro Devices has gained around 4% share in the x86 CPU market as of Q3 2024, and NVIDIA has overshadowed Intel’s Gaudi with its AI GPU supremacy. Foundry ambitions of Intel have found it hard to compete with TSMC’s foundry technology.
The foundry division was at the heart of Intel’s strategy for recovery, but it lost a massive $2.3 billion in Q4 2024 alone. Overall, losses in that division have piled up to $13.4 billion, emphasizing the difficulties of intel and its challenge to compete with well-established contract manufacturers like TSMC.
Because of competitive conflicts, NVIDIA and AMD are hesitant to utilize Intel’s manufacturing services. According to Northland Capital Markets analyst Gus Richard, Intel “can create a design environment that works for Intel, but it’s hard if not impossible for anybody else to use.”
Financial struggles and attempts at restructuring
In recent years, Intel has gone through extraordinarily difficult financial problems. The year 2024 was characterized by the company registering a net loss of $18.8 billion, thus registering its first annual loss since 1986. From a revenue of $79 billion in 2021, this declined to approximately $54 billion by 2023.
In the wake of spiraling losses, Intel has started drastic measures to rein in costs. It has since suspended dividend payments for the first time since 1992 and announced plans to cut its workforce by 15,000 jobs—about 15% of its total employees. Collectively, these measures are expected to bring down costs by $10 billion by 2025.
The leadership change has only complicated matters regarding whether or not Intel would be able to put its recovery plans into operation. Pat Gelsinger’s departure in December 2024 placed the company under interim co-CEOs Michelle Johnston Holthaus and David Zinsner, Successor Lip-Bu Tan, who took over in March 2025, now faces the massive challenge of undoing the decline stretching over numerous years.
Risks to the rebirth
Despite all odds, analysts expect some recovery catalysts. Significant benefits may accrue from Intel’s forthcoming Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake AI PC processors and cooperative effort with TSMC on 3nm chips. New Xeon 6 processors, alongside Panther Lake expected in H2 2025, focus on recapturing market share.
Another big boost comes from subsidies with government support under the CHIPS Act. With the law backing $52 billion for U.S. chip manufacturing, Intel stands to gain from the Act for its rules on domestic manufacturing.
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