Bu Tan, who took the helm last March, the company has a new turnaround plan. And it depends in part on the newly announced Core Ultra Series 3 chip, which will be in almost every major new laptop this year.

Intel is reportedly preparing Intel Core G3 handheld chips based on Panther Lake, with Arc B390 integrated graphics gains as the main hook. Here’s what that could mean for portable gaming PCs.

Intel has been building chips designed for gaming PCs for years but the company is now moving into handheld devices too.

Intel introduced its latest processors at CES 2026, debuting the "Panther Lake" Intel Core Ultra Series 3. The chips are the most advanced manufactured in the U.S., according to Intel, and they are built on Intel's 18A process.

Intel stock increased +6.5% on strong volume following the CES 2026 introduction of its Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” processors

Nvidia finalized a $5B Intel stake after FTC approval, buying 214.7M shares. The move bolsters Intel’s foundry push as 18A ramps.

One of the main drivers of Intel stock's performance in 2025 was a series of deals Tan struck. First, Tan secured an $8.9 billion equity investment from the U.S. Government, unlocking existing grant money that hadn't yet been delivered. Intel also received a $2 billion equity investment from SoftBank, further strengthening its balance sheet.

Intel has confirmed that laptops featuring its new Core Ultra Series 3 processors are ready to hit the market later this month.

On a somewhat surprising note, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) really delivered at this year’s CES (Consumer Electronics Show), with a big chip unveiling that helped power the stock to a gain of more than 12% year to date.

Panther Lake is the first high-volume chip to use the Intel 18A process. Because it's launching in the early days of volume production, the chip's profitability may be limited due to lower yields. However, the value of Panther Lake goes beyond boosting the PC business.

Not all of Intel's Core Ultra 3 chips will achieve such lofty gaming heights, unfortunately. Only the X7 and X9 chips include 12 Xe GPU cores and Arc B390 graphics. The rest of the Core Ultra 3 family has the typical four Xe cores and basic Intel graphics.

Intel's beefy Arc B390 integrated graphics chip on its new Panther Lake Core Ultra X9 CPU is a very capable little chip. In new benchmarks on select laptops displayed at CES 2026, its new GPU managed over 80 FPS in the always-intense Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p resolution.