The Fruity Cargo Cult Apple is expected to have Intel in the US produce at least some of the upcoming Mac and iPhone chips, but that is less a return to Chipzilla than a tariff-avoidance measure.
According to the Wall Street Journal Apple chief executive Tim Cook was under pressure from the White House last summer when he fielded an unusual request.
Cook was in Washington trying to persuade the Trump administration to drop its plan for 100 per cent tariffs on all semiconductor imports. Such a move would probably have increased the cost of Job’s Mob most important products, which would have been tragic for a company allergic to margin pain.
Job’s Mob eventually won an exemption after promising to invest hundreds of billions of dollars more in the US.
During meetings with Cook, US President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick brought up another American company in need of a cuddle, the troubled chipmaker Intel.
The Journal said the Trump administration effectively dangled tariff relief in front of Job’s Mob if it helped Chipzilla look useful again.
Nearly a year later, Trump announced on Truth Social that Job’s Mob would start using Intel-made chips for some of its products.
“I decided to help Intel because we need to design and build our Chips right here in America,” Trump wrote.
Job’s Mob plans to have Chipzilla make chips for both Mac laptops and iPhones, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.
The connection between the tariff talks and a possible Job’s Mob deal with Chipzilla had not been previously reported. The whole affair has the elegant smell of industrial policy mixed with hostage negotiation and a PowerPoint about patriotism.
Job’s Mob was not forced to raise prices in the end because of semiconductor import tariffs. Sadly for anyone hoping for cheaper toys from Cupertino’s glass spaceship, the bill still arrived through the global memory shortage.
So Job’s Mob dodged one tariff-shaped brick, only to get smacked by RAM prices on the way out.
