Apple may be the world's largest consumer tech company, but even it sometimes has to look elsewhere when items on its shopping list are simply unavailable.
The company looks like it may be a step closer to filling its cart with Intel-manufactured chips, if a report in Friday's Wall Street Journal is correct. The update follows a Bloomberg report earlier this week that Apple was considering additional semiconductor suppliers, including Samsung and Intel, to ameliorate its current supply woes.
Apple has been facing an unprecedented strain on its chip supply, thanks to fab-capacity shortfalls affecting the entire tech industry due to competing (and more lucrative) data center and enterprise needs for AI computing power.
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TSMC, Apple's primary supplier of silicon for its M5 and A19 series chips used in Macs and iPhones, is one of the world's most advanced foundries and, therefore, in high demand.
The timing of an agreement makes sense. On its earnings call on April 23, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the company is "encouraged by our external engagements" regarding its Intel 18A-P and Intel 14A chip technologies. Intel's 18A process node, used by the Panther Lake architecture at the center of its current generation of laptop Core Ultra CPUs, has delivered a significant performance improvements over past generations.
Intel's annual stockholders meeting is next week on May 13, and Tan appointed a new head for the group responsible for its client computing in early May.
Intel claims 14A will deliver better yields and improvements in efficiency over 18A; the company says its new "turbo cell" architecture enables greater flexibility in the mix of high-performance and low-power cores. That sounds quite similar to Apple's latest M5 and A19 chips, which added a third type of core for more balanced juggling of performance and battery life, and 14A was likely a prerequisite to meet Apple's needs. In its call, Intel stated 14A is on target to hit late-2026, early-2027 commitments.
Intel declined to comment. Representatives for Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to the Bloomberg report, Apple has been in talks with Samsung and Intel, and executives have even visited a Samsung plant being built in Texas. It could walk away from potential deals with both chip suitors, especially if there are any technical problems involved with switching to silicon from other companies.
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Samsung last week announced a nearly 50-fold increase in its semiconductor revenue, driven by increased demand and increasingly tight global supplies.
Apart from supply chain issues, Apple also has an incentive to shift some of its sourcing to companies producing chips in the US. Tech companies, including Apple, are under pressure from the Trump administration to move manufacturing operations or source parts from companies doing business in the US.
Apple previously moved some of the manufacturing and assembly of some Macs to the US. During a trade war last year that imposed tariffs on China, it shifted some of its component sourcing to countries such as India and Vietnam.
