alt Hacker NewsApple, Intel have reached preliminary chip-making deal
Comments
Here’s my guess as to Apple's reasoning: They like to dominate suppliers, but TSMC is in such high demand that they’re on equal footing now. Going into bed with Intel gives them the chance to set strict terms again.
The key distinction is Intel as a foundry versus Intel as the CPU designer. Apple can still be fully committed to its own silicon while wanting another manufacturing option.
This might explain why Apple has so many positions open at their Beaverton office, which coincidentally is not too far from ASML and Intel.
This is really nice for competition in semiconductor manufacturing. The TSMC quasi-monopoly (with Samsung fabs slightly lagging) and limited capacity is not good for the market. Owning leading edge fabs might also help Intel to keep up the competition in the x86 market. Intel is the underdog now!
Is this Intel Foundry Services fabbing apple-designed chips, or Apple using Intel-designed chips in their products? I would assume the former but don't see where in the article it says either way.
Pardon my lack of faith but ... this article is clueless. No information whatsoever. Except:
> The Journal report said the U.S. government, which became Intel's largest shareholder last year under a deal with its CEO Lip-Bu Tan, played a major role in bringing Apple to the negotiating table.
... smells what it smells.
There are no details in the article.
It is probably a second source deal for a popular chip or a support chip in an older process node like a power converter.
"In general, we want to and have been helping Intel," the official said, adding the effort was not because of the equity stake in Intel, but because the company is a major U.S. semiconductor producer. "We have been trying to drum up business for Intel."
-dystopian
For what it’s worth I thought Intel was down and out and on the decline, but that is not the case 18A is more advanced and more performant than TSMC’s N2- which are both foundary’s most advanced chips. The main problem Intel has is scaling. It just cannot provide the volume right now. That seems like a much more tractable problem, especially with 14 A on the horizon.
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/intels-18a-and-ts...
how do you get to the content? I keep getting a 401 and a message to "enable JS and disable any ad blocker" even though JavaScript(tm) is enabled and I don't have an ad blocker. Do you have to use Safari or Edge or something?
Intel seems far & away the best at chiplet right now. Foveros, EIMB, etc, and possible Z-Angle next... Intel seems way ahead. They're trying to get to 12x reticle size in 2028, and doing it super smartly (eimb). https://bsky.app/profile/ogawa-tadashi.bsky.social/post/3mld...
That alone is a strong reason for Apple to show up. Apple has some pretty wild patents on chiplet System-on-Chip designs! https://bsky.app/profile/ogawa-tadashi.bsky.social/post/3mi7...
Wasn't the whole apple silicon thing about Intel being unable to keep up?
Is this maybe a way to expand the affordable neo line?
Ah yes the classic pump. Has a 3x parabolic move ever maintained price over extended periods of time?
What year is this? What happened to the M1, M2, ... MN chips of Apple's? Is Apple going to go with Motorola after Intel???
Obviously I couldn't read the article due to it being paywalled.
Intel was not "allowed" to fail. (But Spirit Airlines was) and now the stock is at an all time high.
It was only 9 months ago [0] that almost everyone here was bearish (not me [1]). Now it is the opposite.
Next we will here some folks wishing they should have joined Intel when it was $20 a share.
> The Journal report said that the U.S. government, which became Intel's largest shareholder last year under a deal with its CEO Lip-Bu Tan, played a major role in bringing Apple to the negotiating table.
Ah, so this wasn't a decision Apple freely made based on technical merits. Instead it sounds more like big government and a fancy stock manipulation scheme.
My guess, Apple drags their feet for a couple years and bails after Trump leaves office(or is significantly weakened after the midterms).
Would love to see this mean the return of Bootcamp, but that's probably gone forever.
Big deal, smart for all parties, really. Apple standards will make Intel step up and become a better foundry partner.
Apple will gain increasingly needed diversification.
US supply chain gets a boost.
Should be fine for TSMC in the short to medium term. Apple not going to risk actual mainline iPhone SoC on Intel any time soon, so lion share of TSMC Apple revenue will be fine.