U.S. President Donald Trump announced in a post on Truth Social on Thursday that Apple has agreed to collaborate with Intel on the design and production of its chips in the United States.
The partnership is expected to help Apple broaden its manufacturing network as it looks to secure additional chipmaking capacity. The iPhone maker currently depends heavily on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), whose cutting-edge facilities are facing strong demand from artificial intelligence chip giants such as Nvidia and AMD.
“Apple has agreed to work with Intel to design and build its Chips in America. We decided to help Intel in exchange for 10 percent of their shares,” said Trump.
He added that the company was worth around $100 billion when the offer was made. “Now they are worth over $600 billion! Nine months, and they’ve increased in value over half a trillion dollars. America’s stake is now over $60 billion.”
Apple deal to boost Intel’s manufacturing division
Intel secured a preliminary agreement to manufacture certain chips for Apple following more than a year of negotiations.
Landing Apple as a customer would provide Intel with a reliable stream of orders from one of the world’s largest consumer electronics manufacturers, strengthening the company’s credibility and supporting its contract manufacturing division, which has struggled to keep pace with TSMC in recent years.
Earlier this week, Intel announced that its next-generation 18A manufacturing process has entered initial production, as the company continues to benefit from robust demand for its central processing units (CPUs).
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Apple plans price increases amid memory chip shortages
Trump’s announcement also comes at a critical moment for Apple. The iPhone maker said it plans to increase prices for its products to offset the impact of rising memory and storage chip costs. A sharp surge in artificial intelligence-driven demand from data centers has forced consumer electronics manufacturers into intense competition for dwindling supplies of key components, resulting in significant price increases.
Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Executive Officer, said in press remarks that raising prices had become unavoidable.
“Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable. We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable,” Cook said.
Cook did not disclose when the price increases would take effect, the extent of the increases, or which products might be affected.
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