A potential Apple partnership offers Intel fresh credibility as it races to challenge TSMC’s dominance
By Dave Lee
/ Bloomberg Opinion
The White House’s decision to take a 9.9 percent stake in Intel Corp is looking like very shrewd business indeed. Since the government bought in at US$20.47 a share last August, the US chipmaker’s surging stock price has delivered the US a US$43 billion return. One of the reasons the investment has so far proved so sound is that the White House has made sure of it. According to The Wall Street Journal, Howard personally pushed deals on Intel’s behalf with some of the most lucrative clients imaginable. They include Nvidia Corp, the company at the heart of the AI revolution; SpaceX, which would like to be; and now, reportedly, Apple Inc — a crown jewel client that would be the firmest stamp of approval yet on the Intel turnaround project. Under the “preliminary” deal, the The Wall Street Journal reported, Intel’s foundry business would handle some of Apple’s chip needs, though which products are involved has not been confirmed. TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (郭明錤), a longtime observer of Apple’s supply chain, wrote earlier this month that Apple had “kicked off low-end/legacy iPhone, iPad and Mac” chip manufacturing with Intel.
