U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on Truth Social that Apple has finalised a deal with Intel to design and manufacture chips in the US.
Neither Job’s Mob nor Chipzilla has confirmed the deal, although reports for months suggested the pair had already signed a preliminary agreement and Trump had little to do with it.
The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Job’s Mob and Chipzilla had reached some sort of agreement for US-made chips to power Apple devices.
The move is less a triumph for Job’s Mob than an admission that its old supply-chain dictatorship is not what it was.
For years, the iPhone maker could bully suppliers, play them off against each other and pretend dependency on Taiwan was clever strategy.
Now Washington is pushing it towards Chipzilla because geopolitical risk and AI-driven capacity shortages have made that model look rather less smug.
Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick reportedly met Apple leadership repeatedly for a year to persuade the company to do business with Intel again.
Job’s Mob and Chipzilla were once close, before Apple ditched Intel processors for its own silicon, mostly manufactured by Taiwan’s TSMC.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo later reported that the iPhone maker had started testing systems-on-chip built on Intel’s 18A-P process.
Kuo said Intel would test production for Apple processors through 2026 before starting production and delivery next year.
Chipzilla is expected to manufacture chips for iPhones and Macs at fabs in Oregon, Arizona and Ohio, although TSMC will still handle most production.
The US government took a 10 per cent stake in Intel in August 2025, with the company saying Washington would make an $8.9 billion investment in common stock.
Some of that money came from CHIPS Act funding already earmarked for Intel, while some came from the Secure Enclave programme.
For Job’s Mob, the awkward bit is obvious. Its days of ruling the supply chain from Cupertino are ending, and even its vast cash pile cannot buy away dependence, politics and manufacturing reality.
