- Apple has held early-stage talks with Intel about using its foundry services and has visited Samsung’s advanced chip plant under development in Texas — both aimed at securing a secondary supplier beyond TSMC for its main device processors.
- No orders have been placed with either company; Apple has concerns about non-TSMC manufacturing quality and may not move forward, but the discussions reflect genuine urgency given current supply shortfalls.
- Tim Cook disclosed on Apple’s Q1 earnings call that chip shortages are constraining Mac mini and Mac Studio sales, driven by AI data center buildout consuming advanced-node capacity — and said supply-demand balance could take “several months” to restore.
- A partnership with Intel would carry a political dividend: the White House brokered an investment in Intel last year and views the company as a national champion, making an Apple relationship a Trump administration priority.
What Happened?
Apple has held exploratory discussions with Intel about using its chipmaking services to produce the main system-on-chip processors that power iPhones and Macs, and Apple executives have made site visits to Samsung’s advanced semiconductor plant under construction in Taylor, Texas. Neither relationship has produced orders, and the conversations are preliminary — but the outreach represents a meaningful shift for a company that has relied almost exclusively on TSMC for over a decade. The discussions preceded the current chip shortages and are partly motivated by strategic concerns about geographic concentration: roughly 60% of the world’s advanced chip production currently flows through Taiwan, and Apple’s Cook has flagged that concentration as a long-term risk given China’s territorial claims on the island.
Why It Matters?
For Intel, landing Apple as a foundry customer would be a transformational win for CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s turnaround strategy and could validate Intel’s foundry business to other prospective clients. Intel shares jumped as much as 4% in premarket trading on the report. For Apple, any move to Intel or Samsung involves real technology risk — neither can currently match TSMC’s production quality or scale at the most advanced nodes — but the supply constraints hitting iPhone 17 Pro and Mac Studio lines are creating urgency that could accelerate the timeline. Samsung already produces more peripheral Apple components; becoming a processor partner would be a step-change in that relationship. There is also a political angle: the Trump administration has invested heavily in Intel as a domestic semiconductor champion, and an Apple partnership would strengthen that narrative.
What’s Next?
Watch for whether Apple places any trial wafer orders with Intel or Samsung — a formal order would signal the talks have moved from exploratory to operational. TSMC’s Arizona fab is already ramping up to deliver 100 million chips to Apple in 2026, but that covers only a fraction of Apple’s total annual needs. The broader question is whether Intel’s foundry technology advances fast enough over the next 18–24 months to meet Apple’s quality bar. If it does, the geopolitical logic of diversifying away from Taiwan-concentrated production becomes commercially viable — not just strategically desirable.
Source: Bloomberg
