Intel and Apple have reportedly reached a preliminary agreement for Intel to manufacture some Apple chips in its foundries, a reversal of sorts that stops well short of the old Mac-era relationship. The report comes from The Wall Street Journal, which says the two companies have been talking for more than a year and that the deal was formalized in recent months, though neither side has confirmed it publicly.
This is not Apple crawling back to Intel processors for Macs. The chips in question would be made by Intel for Apple devices, not Intel’s own x86 parts, which is a very different business. Apple ditched Intel CPUs in Mac models introduced in late 2020 and has since moved its entire Mac lineup to in-house M-series chips.
What the Apple-Intel agreement actually covers
The report does not say which Apple products would use Intel-made chips. That omission matters, because Apple’s silicon supply chain has become one of the company’s quiet advantages: it controls design, timing, and tightly integrated hardware in a way few rivals can match. Bringing in Intel as a manufacturer would be about capacity and geography, not a return to the old dependency.
Apple has also been exploring more U.S.-based manufacturing options, and earlier reports said it had held early discussions with Intel and Samsung about making chips for its devices in the United States. That fits a broader pattern across the industry: chipmakers and device brands are trying to spread production risk after years of treating Asia-centered manufacturing as the default, and Intel is eager to turn its foundry business into something more than a PowerPoint promise.
Why Intel would want this win
For Intel, any Apple contract is the kind of badge that no marketing campaign can buy. It would also signal that Intel Foundry can compete for premium external customers, not just chase them, as it tries to rebuild trust after years of manufacturing missteps and market-share pain. For Apple, the upside is simpler: more suppliers, more leverage, and fewer reasons to panic when one factory hiccups.
The unanswered question is scale. If this deal is real, Apple may be testing Intel with limited-volume parts first, which is the sensible way to use a foundry that is still proving itself. A full-blown comeback for Intel inside Apple products? That would be a much bigger story than this one, and the WSJ report does not go that far.