Intel has raised $20 billion through an upsized share sale, using a stock rally that has climbed roughly 165% this year to sharply reduce the dilution cost for existing shareholders and fund an accelerating push into artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The chipmaker priced 210.5 million new shares at $95 each. Underwriting banks hold the option to purchase a further 31.6 million shares, which could lift the total raised to approximately $23 billion. For a company that has spent years trying to reposition itself inside one of tech’s most competitive cycles, the timing reflects how sharply its fortunes have shifted.

At the $95 offering price, Intel needed roughly 211 million shares to raise $20 billion. At the $20.47 per share price at which the US government purchased its Intel stake last year, raising the same amount would have required close to 977 million shares. The rally has allowed Intel to achieve the same result with nearly 80% fewer shares issued, limiting the dilutive impact on existing investors considerably.

Intel’s share price performance has been striking even by the elevated standards of the current AI trade. Its approximately 165% gain this year outpaces AMD’s roughly 120% rise and leaves Nvidia’s 17% advance well behind. That said, Intel shares remain around 31% below their June peak, representing more than $200 billion in erased market value since that high point.

The proceeds land at a telling moment for capital expenditure. Intel recently raised its planned spending on factories, equipment and long-term assets to around $20 billion for the year, a figure that roughly mirrors the base offering. In announcing the deal, Intel pointed to what it described as a strong and sustainable demand environment driven by unprecedented levels of investment in AI computing capacity.

Intel’s position within the AI ecosystem differs from that of Nvidia or AMD. Alongside selling processors used in AI systems, it is investing heavily in advanced chip packaging techniques and in manufacturing chips designed by third-party firms, making it more of a foundational layer in the AI build-out than a direct competitor to GPU-focused peers.

The US government acquired an $8.9 billion stake in Intel at $20.47 a share as part of broader efforts to anchor advanced semiconductor manufacturing domestically. SoftBank and Nvidia also invested around that period at comparable prices, all negotiated well below today’s market levels.