Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) got off to a rocky start this week. The catalyst: A Bloomberg.com report that indicated Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was preparing to replace the CPUs for Macs with its own technology. On the heels of this ominous news, Intel stock plunged about 6%. Although, as the week went by, some of the losses were recouped.

It’s important to keep in mind that Intel stock has still been mostly in the bullish mode. Hey, for the past 12 months, the shares have logged gains of 42%.

But then again, how serious is the Apple threat? Could it ultimately derail Intel stock?

Well, I think the company will be able to manage through it. First of all, a replacement is not planned until 2020. And it will likely be phased in. The fact is that it will take quite a bit of effort to create the necessary infrastructure, as the chip business is highly capital intensive. To put things in  perspective, INTC expects to shell out $14 billion in capital expenditures for this year.

Granted, AAPL would certainly benefit if it could develop its own CPUs. This would allow it to have more control over the features and performance. There would also be more integration across the platforms, that is, the iPads, Apple Watches and iPhones. Already the company has been standardizing on its own chip designs as well as those from Arm Holdings Plc.

Yet creating CPUs is incredibly difficult. For the most part, INTC has significant advantages, in terms of technology, expertise, engineering and scale. So if AAPL wants to continue to provide quality experiences for its customers – which is at the core of the mission – then the company will need to make some breakthroughs. And this is far from guaranteed.

Intel Stock and the Growth Opportunities

Through the decades, Intel has fended off tough competitors. As the legendary CEO Andy Grove liked to say: “Only the paranoid survive.”

So it should be no surprise that the current CEO, Brian Krzanich, has been reinventing the business. The goal is to wean itself away from the PC market and to focus on the emerging growth opportunities. For Krzanich, the vision is to make Intel a data-centric business – and this means doubling down on the data center.

A key to this has been the Xeon Scalable processors. But Intel has also been expanding across other important categories. There continues to be traction with high-performance systems for AI (Artificial Intelligence) and IoT (Internet-of-things). What’s more, the acquisition of Mobileye will allow INTC to benefit from the growth in the autonomous driving market.

Here’s how Krzanich put it in the latest earnings report: “We believe this will be the most advanced, scalable and efficient platform of its kind. EyeQ5 will deliver 23 tera ops of deep learning performance and a 10 watt power envelops or about 2.5 times the efficiency of the competition.”

Bottom Line on Intel Stock

If APPL does eventually replace its CPUs, the impact will still probably be overwhelming for Intel stock. Note that 5% of its revenues come from APPL (and this includes the sales for baseband modem chips). According to Evercore ISI analyst C.J. Muse, he thinks the worst-case scenario is that Intel stock will see a 15 cents per share impact five years from now.

Besides, INTC is making the right moves to refocus on growth markets. Consider that UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri believes that investors are “mispricing new growth opportunities around AI.” His price target on INTC stock is $70, which implies 40% upside.

I actually think Intel’s actions are similar to what other old-line tech operators have done over the past few years, such as Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). So going forward, it’s a reasonable bet that INTC stock will continue to see gains as the growth continues to improve.

Tom Taulli is the author of High-Profit IPO Strategies, All About Commodities and All About Short Selling. Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.