Intel Innovation event draws ambiguous reaction from Wall Street
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Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) held its innovation day event on Tuesday, where it made several AI and software-related announcements, resulting in a mixed reaction from several Wall Street firms.
Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore, who has an equal-weight rating and $35 price target on Intel, said the event largely focused on bringing AI to the edge and further in the cloud, but ultimately, there were "no big surprises.
Moore explained that Intel (INTC) shares have "potential," but the firm is on the sidelines for now, despite the fact that when the company names its foundry customer, which Moore said could be Nvidia (NVDA), it could move the stock.
"Our focus is almost entirely on the server roadmap, and how process technology might impact the server roadmap," Moore wrote in a note to clients. "If we felt strongly and positively about the roadmap, we would look through limited profitability, minimal free cash flow, and lackluster market growth."
Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers, who has an equal-weight rating and $40 price target on Intel (INTC), noted that the company's roadmap is "on track" while also mentioning the AI advancements both in the datacenter - via Gaudi and Xeon chips - as well as at the edge, or on PCs, via Core CPUs.
"Intel announced a partnership with Stability AI (as anchor customer) to build a large AI supercomputer featuring Xeon CPUs and 4,000 Gaudi2 AI accelerators," Rakers wrote in a note, adding that Gaudi is being seen as having "favorable" performance for AI and could be a a "viable alternative" to Nvidia GPUs for certain applications.
J.P. Morgan analyst Harlan Sur, who has an underweight rating and $35 price target on Intel (INTC), said it's clear the company is trying to put artificial intelligence "everywhere."
"The team is rolling out an 'AI everywhere ' strategy across client, server, and edge end markets by leveraging its hardware solutions (CPU/GPU/NPUs) and optimized AI software solutions," Sur wrote in a note, making reference to the Core Ultra processors. 
Sur also said Intel (INTC) is "executing well" on its PC product roadmap, and seeing "strong execution" on its server roadmap.
Speaking at the event, Intel (INTC) CEO Pat Gelsinger said the new Xeon processors would have major advances in both efficiency and performance and would be released on December 14. 
In addition, Super Micro Computer (SMCI) said it would support and provide early access for the Xeon processors on its family of x13 servers.
Separately, Intel (INTC) said that artificial intelligence would be coming to PCs with the launch of the Intel Core Ultra processors, also slated to be released on December 14. The Core Ultra will bring "power efficient" AI acceleration and local inference to the PC, the Santa Clara, California-based company said.
Pricing details of the new chipsets was not disclosed.
In addition, Intel (INTC) said a large AI Supercomputer would be built on Xeon processors and the company's Gaudi AI accelerators, with Stability AI as the anchor customer.
Gelsinger and Intel also said that the company's five-nodes-in-four-years process technology plan remains on track, having shown off a new multi-chiplet package using Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express interconnects.
Intel (INTC) shares were little changed in pre-market trading on Wednesday,

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