Japan Softbank announced on the 19th that it will invest US$2 billion in the company through purchasing common shares of semiconductor manufacturer Intel. After the news came out, Intel shares rose 4% in pre-trading trading. However, investment bank Rising said Intel's stock price was under pressure from the billions of dollars of Smart Capital investment strategy implemented by former executive president Pat Gelsinger and could be dragged down to a $20 per share.

According to wccftech's report, Intel's smart capital investment strategy began in 2022, when it cooperated with Brookfield Asset Management to jointly invest $30 billion in its Ocotillo, Arizona crystal plant. In 2024, Intel announced that it would establish SCIP with asset management company Apollo to sell its Irland Fab 34 crystal plant specifically for Intel 4 and Intel 3 process technology, with 49% of its shares to Apollo for US$11 billion. Under this situation, despite the efforts of the new executive director Chen Liwu to switch the company's operations after taking over in 2025, the company's market value is still affected by the Semiconductor Co-Investment Project (SCIP) and continues to withstand pressure.

Because according to these SCIP agreements, Intel can bring financial assistance in the early stage through smart capital investment strategies, but because of its commitment to purchase two-land crystal plants, its initial profit margin for the company is limited. However, although profits can be increased as production capacity increases, the non-controlling interest of the partner should gradually expand its absorption effect on overall profits. Therefore, although Intel's smart capital strategy brought early financial assistance, its subsequent profit margins were gradually allocated to partners, suppressing Intel's own profit growth, resulting in limited possibility of a significant increase in domestic stock prices in the short term.

The report said that Intel had to give most of the increased profits to partners Brookfield Asset Management and Apollo as a non-controlling interest in the Irish and Arizona SCIP agreement. Therefore, Ruijiang believes that this situation makes Intel's lack of ability to push up EPS, which will make it difficult to significantly push up stock prices. Sri Silver emphasized that based on the above factors, it maintains "neutral" investment evaluation for Intel stock, with the target share price of US$25.

Although Intel shares are currently trading below $26 in the market, Rizol noted that Intel's account is valued at around $17 to $18 per share, bringing support to further declines in stock prices. But the premise is that the company must be able to fully reduce costs to achieve a cash flow balance. However, Riz.com pointed out that if Intel's chip manufacturing business can compare market value with its global peers, its share price potential can reach US$40 per share, especially if its manufacturing assets can be independently evaluated based on the value of the wafer capacity, it will be more valuable.