** Shares in Intel Corp up >8% on Tuesday at $22.27, outperforming the semiconductor sector and with trading volume picking up noticeably after 1:00 p.m ET/1700 GMT with no obvious catalyst for that time

** Even after paring gains, the chip co's stock was still on track for biggest one-day pct gain since April 9, the day after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a pause in hefty tariffs across the globe.

** INTC shares had hit a session high of $22.44 in late afternoon, their highest level since May 14

** Daniel Morgan, portfolio manager at Synovus Trust in Atlanta, Georgia says biggest announcement of the day happened hours before the stock's volume picked up

** Earlier at the ISC 2025 conference in Hamburg, Intel announced its Xeon 6 processors would power a new HX2 supercomputer at Imperial College, London, which is being built by Lenovo servers

** "Intel has been late to the AI party but maybe they can get in early on supercomputers," said Morgan. "The biggest issue with supercomputers or quantum computing has been managing the heart generated by the processor. Investors may be feeling that INTC has a leg up in this space."

** While most Philadelphia semiconductor index .SOX stocks were gaining, the 2/2% gain for the index was much slower than INTC's rally

(Reporting By Sinéad Carew)

((sinead.carew@thomsonreuters.com; +13322191897;))