President Donald Trump has been calling for Intel and Apple to work together ever since his administration acquired a 10% stake in the American chip company. Now, it seems the two companies may have worked out a deal.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources, that Apple and Intel have reached a preliminary agreement for Intel to produce some chips for Apple devices.
People familiar with the matter told the newspaper that the two companies had been in talks for more than a year, but only settled on a formal agreement in recent months. It’s unknown which Apple devices would use the Intel-made chips.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Gizmodo. Intel declined to comment.
Intel, founded way back in 1968, was once America’s leading computer chip company. But in recent years, it has fallen behind rivals like Nvidia and AMD during the AI boom. Its foundry business, where Intel manufactures custom chips for outside clients, has also faced stiff competition from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, better known as TSMC. Apple has long been one of TSMC’s top customers, but increasing demand for AI chips has caused some supply headaches for the iPhone company.
Intel is now in the middle of a comeback. Last month, the company reported that its first-quarter revenue grew 7% and expects next quarter to beat Wall Street expectations. A big part of Intel’s recent momentum has been tied to deals encouraged by the Trump administration.
Last summer, the administration announced that the U.S. government had acquired a 10% stake in Intel after Trump initially called for the resignation of chipmaker CEO Lip-Bu Tan over alleged conflicts of interest.
Since then, The Wall Street Journal reports that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has met with the CEOs of Apple, Nvidia, and SpaceX in an effort to get them to work with Intel. With the reported Apple agreement, all three companies have now made deals with Intel.
Nvidia announced in September that it was investing $5 billion in a partnership where Intel is expected to make custom chips for Nvidia. And in April, Intel said it was joining Elon Musk’s Terafab project with SpaceX and Tesla.
“As you know, Intel came to see me, they needed help. And I said I’ll help you, but I want 10% of your company to go to the United States of America.” Trump told reporters in January. “As soon as we went in, Apple went in, Nvidia went in, a lot of smart people went in.”
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