According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has reached a preliminary chip foundry agreement with Intel, marking the return of this old partner, which had "broken off" in 2023, to the core of Apple's supply chain. This deal is seen by the industry as Apple's multiple layouts in terms of cost control, supply chain security and bargaining power. It also has the US government and President Trump personally coming forward to "sell" the deal.
Reports pointed out that the new cooperation model between Apple and Intel is likely to follow the existing division of labor between Apple and TSMC: Apple designs its own customized chips based on ARM intellectual property, and the foundry is responsible for manufacturing on the advanced process production line. The specific details of the agreement have not yet been made public, but the silicon production node will almost certainly be locked in Intel's 18A-P process.
Earlier news from GF Securities and Electronic Times showed that Apple is expected to hand over some entry-level M series chips to Intel's 18A-P process starting in 2027, and may migrate non-Pro series iPhone chips to the same process line in 2028. To this end, Apple has obtained PDK (Process Design Kit) samples of related processes from Intel to evaluate its process maturity and yield performance.
At the same time, Apple also plans to integrate its ASIC chip "Baltra", which will be launched in 2027 or 2028, into Intel's EMIB packaging technology. Against the background of surging demand for high-end AI servers and continued tightness in TSMC's CoWoS production capacity, Apple's introduction of Intel's packaging capabilities is seen as a key measure to alleviate the bottleneck of server chip production capacity.
On the Mac product line, Intel and Apple also have real incentives to join hands again. As Apple requires TSMC to restart production of the A18 chip used in the current generation of MacBook Neo, it faces obvious pressure on profit margins. The industry has therefore speculated that the next generation of MacBook Neo is likely to switch to Intel Core Series 3 processors code-named Wildcat Lake to offset the cost squeeze brought by TSMC. However, these product-level adjustments are still in the speculative stage and have not yet been officially confirmed by Apple.
In addition to industrial logic, there is also a strong political and capital color behind this transaction. The Wall Street Journal quoted sources as saying that in a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, President Trump emphasized that he "likes Intel" and said that the government has made "tens of billions of dollars" through its Intel shares. Some analysts believe that under the policy framework of the United States vigorously promoting the revitalization of domestic semiconductors, this endorsement and coordination from the White House has played a substantial role in promoting the cooperation between Apple and Intel.
From a purely economic perspective, Intel's price is attractive enough. The report quoted industry information as saying that the wafer quotation of Intel's 18A process is about 25% lower than that of TSMC's 2nm process, which provides a considerable cost buffer for Apple, which relies heavily on its self-developed chip strategy. In a context where the prices of key components such as storage continue to rise and the pressure of "chip inflation" is obvious, such an OEM price advantage will help Apple maintain hardware product profit margins in the medium to long term.
More importantly, most of Intel's wafers are produced in domestic factories in the United States, which allows Apple to gain significant security redundancy in the face of geopolitical risks, tariff policies, and the uncertainty of long-chain supply. Once the risks of tariffs or regional conflicts related to Asian foundries such as TSMC and Samsung are magnified, Intel foundry will become an important hedging segment in Apple's supply chain.
The industry generally believes that if this deal is finally implemented, it will not only weaken TSMC's bargaining power in the high-end process market, but also become a landmark order for Intel's foundry business to "turn around." However, the outside world has also emphasized that whether Intel's 18A process can continue to meet standards in terms of production capacity, yield and stability is still a key factor in determining whether this cooperation can truly reshape the industry structure.