Intel Soars, Applied Materials Tumbles, TeraWulf Rises

On this edition of Stock Movers:

- Intel (INTC) shares jumped today after Bloomberg News reported that the Trump administration is in talks with Intel Corp. to have the US government potentially take a stake in the beleaguered chipmaker, according to people familiar with the plan, in the latest sign of the White House’s willingness to blur the lines between state and industry. The deal would help shore up Intel’s planned factory hub in Ohio, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. The company had once promised to turn that site into the world’s largest chipmaking facility, though it’s been repeatedly delayed. The size of the potential stake isn’t clear. The plans stem from a meeting this week between President Donald Trump and Intel Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan, the people said. While the details are still being sorted, the idea is for the US government to pay for the stake, one of the people said. Another cautioned that the plans remain fluid.

- Applied Materials (AMAT) shares tumbled today as the largest American producer of chipmaking gear, plunged in late trading after giving a disappointing sales and profit forecast, renewing concerns that the US trade dispute with China is weighing on demand. Revenue will be approximately $6.7 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter, the company said in a statement Thursday. Analysts had estimated $7.32 billion on average. Profit will be about $2.11 a share, excluding some items, compared with a projection of $2.38. The company is seeing less demand from customers in China, Chief Executive Officer Gary Dickerson said in an interview. It also faces delays in approval for exporting technology to that country, he said. Moreover, large customers are putting off some purchases in the face of prolonged negotiations around tariffs and other economic issues.

- TeraWulf (WULF) shares rose as much as 53%, the most since March 2022, after Google took the equivalent of an around 8% stake in the company as the Bitcoin miner and data center operator signed two 10-year high-performance computing co-location deals with AI cloud platform operator Fluidstack.

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