BofA Raises CPU TAM to $170 B and Upgrades Intel to Buy at $135
INTC•Bank of America raised its 2030 server CPU total addressable market estimate to $170 billion from $125 billion, projecting a 37% CAGR through 2030 driven by multi-step agentic AI workloads. Intel received a double upgrade to Buy with a $135 price target, reflecting near-term CPU demand and long-term foundry potential.
1. CPU Market Expansion
Bank of America increased its 2030 server CPU market forecast to $170 billion from $125 billion, driven by agentic AI applications that require planning, reasoning, information retrieval and code execution in multi-step workflows. This shift from single-prompt generative AI to latency-sensitive, sequential tasks supports a projected 37% compound annual growth rate from 2025 through 2030.
2. Analyst Upgrades and Price Targets
The upgrade note lifted AMD’s price target to $560 from $500 on stronger CPU and GPU forecasts and raised ARM’s target to $335 from $245 based on extended chiplet opportunities. Intel was given a double upgrade to Buy with a $135 price objective, highlighting both immediate CPU demand strength and strategic foundry expansion prospects.
3. Strategic Implications
Despite the continued importance of accelerators for inference, BofA emphasized that orchestration and decision-making functions in agentic AI are better suited to CPUs, positioning Intel to benefit from growing demand for latency-sensitive processing. The note underscores a broader industry shift toward CPU-centric workloads and long-term manufacturing advantage.
