The AI infrastructure buildout is so massive that it has brought a once-ailing Intel back from the dead. The chipmaker recorded its fastest revenue growth in 15 years this past quarter, driven almost entirely, it seems, by rising chip demand from AI data centers. In the second quarter of 2026, Intel’s revenue was up 25% from the same time last year, with a 59% increase alone from its data center and AI business, according to the company’s earnings report. Once America’s leading chip giant, Intel lost its crown to other chipmakers, particularly the GPU king Nvidia, and watched sales plunge. The situation got dire enough that the previous CEO, Pat Gelsinger, was pretty much ousted in December 2024; the new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, took over in March 2025 with promises of a major comeback; and the Trump administration stepped in with a 10% stake in August. Trump and his administration have reportedly been crucial in facilitating deals between Intel and Silicon Valley AI giants like SpaceX, Apple and Nvidia, further securing Intel a place in AI hype. Intel’s turnaround story has also coincided with a renaissance period of sorts for central processing units, aka CPUs. GPUs are traditionally associated with AI hype, but CPUs are more Intel’s playing field. As enthusiasm around agentic AI grew, CPUs have taken on a renewed role as they are largely considered well-suited for tasks that are at the core of agentic systems like inference workloads.