In August 2024, a Redditor was widely, repeatedly, and mercilessly ridiculed for investing the majority of an $800,000 inheritance in Intel stock, but given that the company just notched an all-time stock price high today, they may have the last laugh. Sadly for our thoughtful investor, their initial timing wasn’t the best, as pretty shortly after their $700,000 investment at $30.45 per share became… much smaller. Later in the same week, Intel's share values collapsed to under $20. It was a tragedy to see Grandma's life savings evaporate so quickly, with many wisecrackers rubbing salt in the wound. The Redditor has since vanished and deleted their profile. However, it looks like the $700K investor’s story will have a happy ending, and they will have the last laugh, if they did indeed hold.
I bought $700k worth of Intel stock today from r/wallstreetbets
While the Redditor’s post remains, the username is deleted. That’s understandable with the sheer amount of commenters we can see with 20-20 hindsight, clearly enjoying themselves at another’s loss.
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The original r/wallstreetbets post was brimming with reasoning, logic, and positivity for Intel as an investment. True then, and now, the investment did put a lot of eggs in one tech basket, though.
The ‘bet’ quickly became a losing one. Grandma’s legacy would shrink as the news flow for Intel at the time was dire. The iconic PC chipmaker faced a string of weak guidance, missed expectations, and strategic turmoil. Competitive pressure was growing, too, and INTC’s direction seemed to be out of touch and missing the opportunity of the great AI wave.
In early August 2024, we reported on the chipmaker suspending its dividend and stock dropping 30% overnight. This was very soon after the headlining $700,000 investment. Other troubling issues we reported on at Intel during the same month include its possible loss of foundry business for SoftBank’s AI chips, various large reductions in staff, and AMD’s best server CPU market share in decades.
It would take a year of scrambling for Intel to make its way out of the doldrums, as the stock charts show. From August 2025, we have seen Intel shares relentlessly gain value, from under $20, and at the time of writing at $82.
Our inheritance investor originally claimed that they were in Intel for “a decade depending on how it performs.” Let’s hope the naysayers didn’t sway them before the significant turnaround in fortunes at Intel.
But why is INTC so clearly rampant right now? Over recent months, we have seen the huge Intel juggernaut turn around, driven by Lip Bu Tan’s deal-making. Today, we are reporting on the firm’s stock rocketing by 28% after a strong Q1 with rising forecasts. This rise is like a mirror to August 2024’s collapse.
It is also clear that the new CEO is making deals with the right people to grab firmly onto the coattails of AI tech expansionist enthusiasm. Notably, earlier this month, Intel made what is probably a future-defining agreement to join Elon Musk’s TeraFab project.
The best way to celebrate
We imagine that one day, in the not-too-distant future, the fortune-flipped investor will laugh, satisfied by their incredible wealth and canny investment acumen, while enjoying a big cigar in the TeraFab burger bar, at least if Elon Musk has his way.
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