Intel CEO Reportedly Echoes Nvidia’s Jensen Huang On Lower-Cost Chinese AI Models – Traders Watch $100 Level

• Tan’s support for open-source AI echoes Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s statements that accessible AI models can broaden adoption rather than necessarily reduce demand for computing hardware.
• Intel’s data-center business could benefit if lower inference costs encourage more companies to deploy AI applications, including agentic AI systems.
• Intel reported second-quarter revenue of $16.13 billion, up 25% year over year, while its Data Center and AI segment grew 59%.

Intel (INTC) CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly said on Monday that Chinese frontier AI models cost less per token and that adoption has been “very fast.” 

According to Reuters, he called the performance of models like DeepSeek, Kimi and GLM “good enough.” He added that “I’m a strong believer of open source; that’s the best way to drive efficiency,” and said markets will decide which models suit which use cases.

INTC stock fell as much as 1.6% in pre-market trade, on track to hit lows last seen in mid-September. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the shares remained in ‘bearish’ territory over the past day. 

Intel CEO Sees Opportunity In Lower-Cost AI Models

Tan’s view puts him in the same cohort as Nvidia’s (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang, who has repeatedly defended Chinese open-weight models. Huang said in July that models from DeepSeek, Alibaba (BABA) and Moonshot AI were…