Intel shares fall as Trump’s taxpayer-backed investment loses value

The forecast outweighed the quarter

Intel had climbed about 150% since the start of the year, buoyed by seemingly limitless demand for AI investment. Its third-quarter earnings beat expectations, but the outlook for the next quarter did not. Shares now sit just above $60, well below the “NOW $95” shown in an AI-generated image Donald Trump posted in September, depicting himself as a day trader.

The fall has revived a familiar choice for investors: buy after the drop or wait. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has also taken a major hit; its market value fell by more than half a trillion dollars last week.

The wider question is whether large technology companies can sustain their growth while continuing to spend heavily on data centers. For Intel, that question is compounded by a difficult market and supply constraints:

Neither path guarantees success.

A government stake moves with the stock

The administration’s investment makes Intel’s volatility a public concern as well as a market one. A falling share price reduces the value of the government’s position, tying taxpayer money to a company whose outlook remains uncertain.

My read is that the selloff matters less as a verdict on one quarter than as a test of the investment thesis: Intel can beat earnings expectations and still lose ground if investors doubt its next step. The announcement leaves the central issue unresolved: how quickly can the company turn AI demand into durable revenue while its PC business and manufacturing remain under strain? Until that becomes clearer, taxpayers share the same uncertainty as Intel’s investors.