Apple has held early-stage discussions about using Intel and Samsung as suppliers for the main processors in its devices, according to sources cited by Bloomberg News. The shift would serve as a geopolitical and supply-chain hedge against Apple’s lead supplier in Taiwan. The talks remain preliminary, no orders have been placed, and Apple could still abandon the idea.
Apple’s supply chain has become more exposed in an era shaped by tariffs and friend-shoring. In 2025, the company ramped up iPhone manufacturing in India by more than 50% to 55 million units, or 25% of total output, as it tried to reduce risk from trade tensions between the US and China. Adding Intel in California and Samsung in South Korea, which is building an advanced chip plant in Texas, would diversify another critical part of Apple’s manufacturing base away from geopolitical pressure.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Apple’s longtime chip supplier and partner, remains exposed to Beijing’s “one-China principle.” Apple also faces the risk of production bottlenecks at TSMC, which have been especially onerous amid massive Artificial Intelligence demand and underscored the need for more suppliers. For Intel and Samsung, winning Apple business would represent a major commercial gain and would further strengthen Intel’s recent momentum.
Intel previously supplied chips to Apple for 15 years leading up to 2020, but it has struggled in recent years with manufacturing delays, revenue pressure, and market-share losses to AMD in CPUs and Nvidia in GPUs. More recently, the Artificial Intelligence boom has supported demand for its CPUs; its 7.2% revenue growth to ?.6 billion in the first quarter exceeded Wall Street expectations. Intel has also drawn support from major backers: The US government took a 10% stake, valued at ?.9 billion, last August, Nvidia also made a ? billion investment in September, and last month, Intel said it was expanding its partnership with Google and joining Elon Musk’s ? billion AI chip project, Terafab.
Even before any agreement, the market reacted strongly to the possibility of an Apple tie-up. Despite Intel’s more than 100% jump last month, news that Apple was evaluating the company as a supplier pushed its shares up 13% to a new record on Tuesday. Samsung also rose 6%.
