TLDR
- Intel and Apple have reached a preliminary agreement for Intel to manufacture chips for Apple devices.
- INTC stock closed up nearly 14%, at one point surging over 19% during the session.
- Apple stock also gained more than 2% on the news.
- The Trump administration played a key role in brokering the deal, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick meeting repeatedly with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
- Talks between the two companies have been ongoing for more than a year, with a formal deal hammered out in recent months.
Intel (INTC) has landed one of the most talked-about manufacturing deals in recent memory — a preliminary agreement to make chips for Apple.
INTC stock surged over 19% intraday on May 9, 2026, before closing up nearly 14%. Apple (AAPL) also climbed more than 2% on the day.
The deal has been in the works for over a year. The two companies formalized it in recent months, though it remains unclear which Apple products Intel will be making chips for. Apple ships more than 200 million iPhones annually, plus millions of iPads and Macs.
Neither Apple nor Intel commented publicly.
Trump Administration Helped Broker the Deal
The deal didn’t happen in a vacuum. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick held repeated meetings over the past year with senior Apple officials, including CEO Tim Cook, to encourage Apple to do business with Intel.
President Trump personally pushed for Intel with Cook during a White House meeting. “As soon as we went in, Apple went in, Nvidia went in, a lot of smart people went in,” Trump said in January.
Last summer, the Trump administration converted nearly $9 billion in federal grants into Intel stock, giving the U.S. government a 10% stake in the chipmaker. That backing appears to have added credibility to Intel’s pitch to outside customers.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took over in spring 2025, also signed partnerships with SpaceX and Nvidia — making Apple the third major name to join the foundry roster.
Intel’s Foundry Ambitions Get a Major Boost
Tan has been aggressively rebuilding Intel’s manufacturing unit, known as Intel Foundry, after years of the company falling behind rivals like TSMC and Samsung.
He brought in former TSMC executive Wei-Jen Lo — a move that triggered a lawsuit from TSMC — and has invested heavily in Intel’s most advanced manufacturing process, called 14A.
Tan also reshuffled leadership in Intel’s data center processor and client computing units and created a new custom silicon division.
On the morning of the announcement, Intel stock hit a record high of nearly $118 per share before climbing further.
Intel’s GF Score stands at 71/100, with momentum rated 9/10. However, its valuation score sits at just 1/10, and according to GuruFocus, the stock trades at $124.92 — well above its GF Value of $28.02.
Insiders have sold $4.0 million worth of stock over the past three months, with no reported buying during the same period.
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