WASHINGTON: Intel has reached a preliminary deal to make some chips for Apple devices, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, in a potential boost to Intel’s contract manufacturing business and Washington’s push to shore up US chip production.
The companies were engaged in intensive talks for more than a year and they hammered out a formal deal in recent months, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Intel’s stock extended gains to rise 15 percent on the news, while Apple shares were up about 1.7 percent in afternoon trading.
Landing an Apple contract would give Intel a steady stream of demand from one of the world’s largest consumer electronics companies, bolstering both its reputation and a manufacturing business that has fallen behind TSMC in recent years.
The Journal report said the US 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.
An administration official said he could not speak to the reported Apple-Intel preliminary deal, but said the administration had generally been trying to bolster Intel.
“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 US semiconductor producer.
“We have been trying to drum up business for Intel.”
The tie-up would also further the Trump administration’s goal of bringing more chip production to the US and strengthening domestic manufacturing.
It is unclear which Apple products Intel would make chips for, according to the report. Intel and Apple declined to comment.
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