The two companies held talks for over a year and finalised a formal deal in recent months
Intel and Apple logos are seen in this illustration taken September 24, 2025.PHOTO: REUTERS
Intel has reached a preliminary deal with Apple to make some of the chips that power the iPhone maker’s devices, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, in āa major boost for the chipmaker’s bid to revive its manufacturing business.
The companies were engaged āin intensive talks for more than a year and they hammered out a formal deal in recent months, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
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Intel stock extended gains to rise 15% on the news, while AppleĀ shares āwere up about 1.7% in afternoon trading.
Landing an Apple contract will give Intel a steady stream āof demand from one of the world’s largest consumer electronics companies, bolstering both ā its reputation and a manufacturing business that has fallen behind TSMC in recent years.
The Journal report said āthat the USĀ government, which became Intel’s largest shareholder last year under a deal with its CEO āLip-Bu Tan, played a major role in bringing Apple to the negotiating table.
It is unclear which Apple products Intel would make chips for, according to the report. Apple and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters‘ requests for ācomment; Intel declined to comment.
For Apple, a deal with Intel could mean a diversification in manufacturing, giving āit the ability to secure more capacity as it has been beholden to extremely tight capacity at TSMC.
At its most ārecent ā earnings, Apple CEO Tim Cook said iPhone sales wereĀ held backĀ by supply constraints at its contract manufacturer.
TSMC is the world’s largest contract chipmaker and makes advanced wafers for AI firms such as Nvidia and AMDĀ but the swelling demand has made securing chip capacity extremely difficult.
Big win for Intel
Intel has spent the last āyearĀ signing deals with the āUSĀ governmentĀ and securing ā investments from AI chip giantĀ NvidiaĀ andĀ SoftBankĀ amid a push from CEO Lip-Bu Tan to turn the chipmaker around.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has met repeatedly over the ālast year with high-ranking Apple officials, including Cook, SpaceX chief āElon Musk ā and Nvidia head Jensen Huang, to try to convince them to get into business with Intel, the WSJ report said.
Last month, Musk said TeslaĀ will use Intel’s next-generation 14A manufacturing processĀ to make chips at its Terafab project, ā an āadvanced AI chip complex Musk has envisioned in Austin.
Earlier this āweek, Bloomberg News reported thatĀ Apple had held exploratory discussionsĀ about using Intel and Samsung to produce main processors for its devices.