3 min learnMight 9, 2026 09:54 AM IST
Intel has reached a preliminary deal to make some chips for Apple gadgets, the Wall Road Journal reported on Friday, in a possible enhance to Intel’s contract manufacturing enterprise and Washington’s push to shore up U.S. chip manufacturing.
The businesses had been engaged in intensive talks for greater than a yr they usually hammered out a proper deal in current months, the report stated, citing individuals acquainted with the matter.
Intel’s inventory prolonged positive factors to rise 15% on the information, whereas Apple shares had been up about 1.7% in afternoon buying and selling.
Touchdown an Apple contract would give Intel a gradual stream of demand from one of many world’s largest shopper electronics firms, bolstering each its repute and a producing enterprise that has fallen behind TSMC in current years.
The Journal report stated the U.S. authorities, which turned Intel’s largest shareholder final yr below a cope with its CEO Lip-Bu Tan, performed a significant position in bringing Apple to the negotiating desk.
An administration official stated he couldn’t converse to the reported Apple-Intel preliminary deal, however stated the administration had typically been making an attempt to bolster Intel.
“On the whole, we need to and have been serving to Intel,” the official stated, including the trouble was not due to the fairness stake in Intel, however as a result of the corporate is a significant U.S. semiconductor producer.
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“We now have been making an attempt to drum up enterprise for Intel.”
The tie-up would additionally additional the Trump administration’s aim of bringing extra chip manufacturing to the U.S. and strengthening home manufacturing.
It’s unclear which Apple merchandise Intel would make chips for, in line with the report. Intel and Apple declined to remark.
For Apple, a cope with Intel may assist diversify its manufacturing base because it seeks extra chip capability. The firm depends closely on TSMC, whose superior manufacturing strains are additionally in excessive demand from AI chipmakers akin to Nvidia and AMD.
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Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner stated on the corporate’s most up-to-date earnings name that iPhone gross sales had been held again by provide constraints at its contract producer.
The deal would additionally reunite the 2 firms, years after Apple moved away from Intel-designed processors for its Mac computer systems and shifted to its personal customized silicon.
Intel has spent the previous yr signing offers with the U.S. authorities and securing investments from Nvidia and SoftBank as Tan pushes to show across the firm.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met repeatedly over the previous yr with senior Apple officers, together with Prepare dinner, in addition to SpaceX chief Elon Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, to encourage them to work with Intel, the WSJ reported.