Intel wants its XMM 7360 LTE modem, unveiled along with the Cherry Trail and SoFIA Atom SoCs at MWC 2015, accepted for the next iPhone and it is doing everything it can to make this happen.

The dark satanic rumour mill suggests that Chipzilla is even offering to fabricate the Ax series SoC for Apple as well.

Sources indicate that Intel has a thousand employees or possibly more working on chips for the iPhone.

To get Apple to move away from Qualcomm's Gobi 9x45 LTE modem, Chipzilla is having to job through hoops. The Gobi offers 3X carrier aggregation with up 60MHz in bandwidth on the downlink, capable of to LTE Advanced Category 10 speeds of 450Mbps downloads.

It is not clear why Apple is changing its mind either. The rumour states that the Fruity Cargo cult might side with Intel if the chipmaker continues to hit "product milestones."

It might like the idea of a package deal with Intel for fabricating its Ax series of SoCs, integrated with Intel's LTE modem technology.

Apple wants an SoC, that packs in the A-series processor as well as LTE modem chip. Intel is already on a 'front to back' 14nm process for its SoCs, unlike Samsung or TSMC, which makes Intel attractive to Apple. Intel’s upcoming 10nm process could herald even better efficiency as well. Under that cunning plan Apple could design the SoC itself, and have Intel fabricate it alongside its LTE modem, the report ads.

Apple has been making trips to Intel's Infineon offices in Munich to collaborate with Intel for optimising the XMM 7360 LTE modem for the next iPhone models.

The stakes are high. If Intel could rope in Apple as its LTE modem partner, and eventually fabricate its Ax series of SoCs, the company would be a key player in the mobile market.

Of course, knowing Intel’s luck it will spend a fortune getting the deal at the same time that Apple tanks completely.