President Trump announced the agreement in a Truth Social post on Thursday, saying Apple would work with Intel to design and build its chips in the United States. Neither Apple nor Intel had confirmed the arrangement directly as of Thursday evening, so for now the deal rests on Trump’s account rather than a joint statement from the companies.
The announcement follows a Wall Street Journal report from May, which said Intel had reached a preliminary deal to manufacture some chips for Apple after more than a year of talks between the two companies.
A tie-up with Intel would let Apple diversify a manufacturing base that leans heavily on TSMC, whose most advanced production lines are increasingly squeezed by demand from AI chipmakers such as Nvidia and AMD. The arrangement would also reverse the usual roles between the two US tech firms: Intel would act as a contract manufacturer building chips that Apple itself designs, rather than supplying its own processor designs as it did for Macs before Apple shifted to its in-house Arm-based chips from 2020 onwards.
For Intel, an Apple contract would offer high-profile validation for a foundry business that has lagged TSMC in recent years, and follows news earlier this week that Intel’s newer 18A manufacturing process has entered initial production.
The deal also extends a deeper relationship between Intel and the US government. The Trump administration took a 10% stake in Intel last year alongside a roughly $10 billion commitment to expand domestic factories, a position Trump said has since grown to be worth more than $50 billion. The administration has continued pushing to bring chip manufacturing onshore, framing it as central to AI, defence and economic competitiveness.
No technical details, including which Apple product lines or manufacturing nodes would be involved, have been confirmed by either company.
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Saf Malik
Senior Content and Insights Manager
