The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said on the 8th (local time), citing multiple sources, that Apple has reached a preliminary agreement to produce some of its in-house designed chips through Intel's foundry (contract chip manufacturing) facilities.
According to the WSJ, the two companies have been negotiating for more than a year over chip production and refined the contract terms in recent months. However, it has not been confirmed which Apple products Intel will supply chips for.
The agreement was reportedly shaped decisively by support from the Donald Trump administration. According to sources, Howard Lutnick Minister of the U.S. Department of Commerce met multiple times with Apple Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tim Cook, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and others to persuade them to form a partnership with Intel. The Trump administration last year converted about $900 million in federal subsidies into Intel equity, and as a result, the U.S. government currently holds about a 10% stake in Intel.
President Trump said in January, "I like Intel," adding, "As soon as we got into (Intel), Apple and Nvidia came in, and many talented people came in."
Meanwhile, Bloomberg recently reported that Apple is also discussing chip production with the foundry division of Samsung Electronics, in addition to Intel. Apple has mainly produced its in-house designed chips at Taiwan's TSMC, but as global semiconductor demand has risen and TSMC's production capacity has hit its limit, it is experiencing a chip supply shortage.