Citigroup: Intel Corporation (INTC.US) welcomes the "window period" of AI chip outsourcing, Micron (MU.US) is removed from the watch list due to the slowdown in the price increase of DRAM.

Investment firm Citigroup upgraded Intel Corporation (INTC.US) on Thursday and removed Micron Technology, Inc. (MU.US) from its U.S. focus watchlist. Intel Corporation The rating for Intel Corporation was upgraded from "sell" to "neutral" with a target price of $50. Citigroup's analysis pointed out that Intel Corporation will benefit from the tight packaging capacity situation at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR (TSM.US). In addition, analyst Atif Malik stated that Intel Corporation "has a unique opportunity window to attract foundry customers with government support." Malik further added, "We believe that with the improvement in Intel Corporation's 18A - P/14A process yield, in the backend, Intel Corporation will be the first to benefit from the spillover effects of AI-specific integrated circuits (like TPU), and then this benefit will extend to the front-end foundry customer area." Although there are many positive factors such as the U.S. government's entry as an investor and capital expenditures expected to stabilize, Malik pointed out that Intel Corporation has not completely overcome its difficulties. The analyst speculated that Intel Corporation is expected to cede some CPU market share to AMD (AMD.US) and Arm (ARM.US), while the soft trend in the personal computer market may lead to an increase in memory prices. Micron Technology, Inc. Micron Technology, Inc. was removed from the U.S. focus watchlist. The reason is that Malik pointed out that the pricing momentum of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) may experience a "slowdown" in the second quarter compared to the first quarter. Malik explained, "Micron's stock price usually follows the quarterly price trend." He further stated, "However, due to limited wafer factory capacity and strong demand in the AI field, we expect the supply-demand balance for memory to continue until 2026/27."