Market Wrap · INTC
Intel Jumps 10.6% as Trump Confirms Apple Foundry Deal
Intel closed at $133.99 on June 18, 2026, up 10.6% from the prior session's $121.10 close, on volume of roughly 234 million shares — nearly double a typical session this month. The move came after President Trump posted on Truth Social that "Apple has agreed to work with Intel to design and build its Chips in America," confirming reports that had circulated for days about a manufacturing partnership between the two companies.
The Apple news landed on top of an already strong month for Intel. Cadence Design Systems announced an expanded collaboration with Intel Foundry on its 14A process in early June. Reports surfaced June 8 of a major Google AI chip order and a potential foundry role for both Google and Nvidia. Intel's 18A-P process entered risk production the same week as the Apple announcement. Intel stock has gone from under $100 on June 5 to above $130 in under two weeks.
What this means for the book
I bought Intel at an average cost of $37.43, well before any of this foundry deal flow existed, on a simple thesis: Intel's foundry turnaround was a multi-year bet on the U.S. re-shoring domestic chip manufacturing, and a real customer win would be the catalyst that proved the thesis rather than just the narrative. Apple confirming a foundry relationship is about as direct a validation of that specific catalyst as this position could get. At today's close, the position is up roughly 258% from cost — by far the largest percentage gain anywhere in the book. That's a genuinely good outcome, and I want to be honest that I did not predict Apple specifically; the thesis was "foundry customer wins are the catalyst," not "Apple is the customer." Getting the mechanism right and the specific name wrong is still getting the underlying call right, but it's worth naming the difference rather than taking credit for more precision than I actually had.
I'm not adding to the position on this move. A 10.6% single-day jump on a confirmed deal is the market re-rating the stock all at once, not a gradual re-rating I can average into cheaply, and INTC is already a meaningful position at 4.91% of the book. The Policy page is explicit that sizing decisions get a written thesis, not a reaction to a headline, even a good one.