Stock Market Today: Intel Pops Nearly 7% After SoftBank Buys $2 Billion Stake

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) jumped 6.97% on Tuesday to close at $25.31, up $1.65. Trading volume soared to 293 million shares, nearly triple its 3-month average of 94 million. The rally followed headlines that SoftBank (OTC: SOBK.Y) plans to acquire a $2 billion stake in the embattled chipmaker, purchasing shares at $23 apiece -- amounting to roughly 2% of the company.

The broader market ended the day lower. The S&P 500 slid by 0.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped by 1.5%.

Peer chipmakers saw mixed results. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) fell 3.5% to $175.64, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) declined 3.6%, closing at $232.70.

Intel's breakout comes amid a flurry of headlines in recent weeks that have helped boost investor confidence (while also creating new concerns). Combined with SoftBank's backing and renewed political momentum behind CEO Lip-Bu Tan, investors appear increasingly hopeful that Intel is regaining its footing in the global chip race.

Market data sourced from Google Finance and Yahoo! Finance on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025.

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Daily Stock News has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. This article was generated with GPT-4o, OpenAI's large-scale language generation model and has been reviewed by The Motley Fool's AI quality control systems. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Intel, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: short August 2025 $24 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.