Intel gets a rare win as report links it to Apple’s future chips
Intel’s share price jumped to $74.11, up 7.4 per cent, after a note from an infueltnial analyst suggested Apple may turn to Intel to manufacture future M series chips for MacBook Air and iPad Pro devices as early as 2027. If the report proves accurate, it would mark a significant endorsement of Intel’s long-delayed push into third party chipmaking.
TF International's Ming Chi Kuo post on X said Apple is expected to tap Intel’s forthcoming 18A P process for the work, a step up from the company’s current 18A technology.
Apple would still design the chips, but Intel would handle the manufacturing, reversing the dynamic of its previous relationship in which Apple relied on Intel’s processors before abandoning them for its own designs built by TSMC.
The prospect of winning a marquee customer is welcome news for Intel. Its foundry business generated $4.2 billion in the latest quarter, far below the $12.7 billion brought in by Intel’s product lines, and the company has struggled to prove it can manufacture chips for others at scale.
Kuo notes that Intel still cannot match TSMC, Apple’s current supplier, but says the move would at least demonstrate Intel’s ability to serve high-profile customers.
The rally adds to an astonishing run for the stock. Intel shares have risen 116 per cent year to date and 113 per cent over the past 12 months, fuelled in part by the arrival of chief executive Lip Bu Tan and supported by heavyweight backers including the US government, now Intel’s largest shareholder with a 10 per cent stake, as well as investments from Nvidia and SoftBank totalling $7 billion.
Intel still trails Nvidia and AMD in the AI chip race. Nvidia has become the world’s most valuable listed company, and AMD is steadily taking market share in both data centre and consumer CPUs.
At its analyst day, AMD chief executive Lisa Su said she expects the company to claim 50 per cent of data centre CPU revenue within three to five years and more than 40 per cent in client markets.
Intel, meanwhile, is trying to rebuild credibility after years of missed deadlines and strategic missteps.
It has finally begun shipping chips based on its 18A technology, suggesting it may be ready to compete more seriously for manufacturing contracts. An Apple deal would not solve all its problems, but it would show that the foundry ambitions it has talked up for years may finally have a customer willing to test them.
