Here’s my guess as to Apple's reasoning: They like to dominate suppliers, but TSMC is in such high demand that they’re on equal footing now. Going into bed with Intel gives them the chance to set strict terms again.
Apple, Intel have reached preliminary chip-making deal
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Re: Apple, Intel have reached preliminary chip-making deal
#72What year is this? What happened to the M1, M2, ... MN chips of Apple's? Is Apple going to go with Motorola after Intel??? Obviously I couldn't read the article due to it being paywalled.
If you can't read, why comment?
>It is unclear which Apple products Intel would make chips for, according to the report. Intel and Apple declined to comment.
Re: Apple, Intel have reached preliminary chip-making deal
#73Big deal, smart for all parties, really. Apple standards will make Intel step up and become a better foundry partner. Apple will gain increasingly needed diversification. US supply chain gets a boost. Should be fine for TSMC in the short to medium term. Apple not going to risk actual mainline iPhone SoC on Intel any time soon, so lion share of TSMC Apple revenue will be fine.
The biggest reason to do this is because TSMC's N2 node and future nodes will be dominated by AI chips. Since AI chips have far bigger margins than most Apple chips, Apple will get outbid by companies like Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom. Nvidia already became TSMC's biggest customer last year. Every TSMC advanced node from N5 to N2 is fully booked and running at max capacity. It's not really realistic to make Mac, Watch,…
> TSMC's N2 node and future nodes will be dominated by AI chips.
Apple was reported to have locked up half of the initial year's 2nm production, which is lower than their share of 3nm, but hardly a sign of being squeezed out of the market
Re: Apple, Intel have reached preliminary chip-making deal
#74Intel was not "allowed" to fail. (But Spirit Airlines was) and now the stock is at an all time high. It was only 9 months ago [0] that almost everyone here was bearish (not me [1]). Now it is the opposite. Next we will here some folks wishing they should have joined Intel when it was $20 a share. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44675965 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44676641
I actually owned quite a bit of Intel stock bought at $19, but was forced to sell it. Then I bough some for $45 last year, and sold couple weeks ago for $60, just a day or two before it took off. Lucky me....
Re: Apple, Intel have reached preliminary chip-making deal
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
The biggest reason to do this is because TSMC's N2 node and future nodes will be dominated by AI chips. Since AI chips have far bigger margins than most Apple chips, Apple will get outbid by companies like Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom. Nvidia already became TSMC's biggest customer last year. Every TSMC advanced node from N5 to N2 is fully booked and running at max capacity. It's not really realistic to make Mac, Watch,…
I find it ironic that Apple did the whole silicon thing to get away from Intel and now they are reportedly crawling back to Intel? I hope M6 and beyond continue to be competitive for inference.
That’s unlikely to be how it’s working out for Intel.
Apple aren’t going to be asking for Intel Inside.
It’ll be more like ‘Can you make this thing? How many and much?’
Re: Apple, Intel have reached preliminary chip-making deal
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the third year in a row that Apple's most advanced chips have used a version of TSMC's 3nm node, with a transition to a more advanced node due in the next generation. Intel would only need to be on par with TSMC's older 3nm node to Fab Apple's entry level SOCs.
Intel just bought a ton of ASML's most advanced machines (way more than TSMC) so theoretically they should be able to manufacture stuff on an equivalent node or better. And given the kind of performance and battery life we have seen from their latest chips they definitely seem to be back in the game
"Big if true". That's surprising. More ASML machines = more capacity in the future. Do you have a source for that?
Intel would need to have lots of (and / or very big) customers lined up or big plans to manufacture possibly more than CPUs of their own design to make use of that capacity.
Re: Apple, Intel have reached preliminary chip-making deal
#77Would love to see this mean the return of Bootcamp, but that's probably gone forever.
Boot camp is a windows problem. This can be done today on apple silicon but Microsoft dosent want to go through the effort to support it.
Technically speaking, Bootcamp is an iBoot problem. Apple stopped shipping Macs with firmware UEFI which breaks 99% of generic OS installers out of the box.
Microsoft is pretty justified not wanting to support that, versus UEFI on OG Bootcamp. The majority of Linux distros don't ship image support for iBoot either.
Re: Apple, Intel have reached preliminary chip-making deal
#78Wasn't the whole apple silicon thing about Intel being unable to keep up? Is this maybe a way to expand the affordable neo line?
> maybe a way to expand the affordable neo line?
It’s a good way to keep pumping the share price too.
Re: Apple, Intel have reached preliminary chip-making deal
#79Pardon my lack of faith but ... this article is clueless. No information whatsoever. Except: > The Journal report said the U.S. government, which became Intel's largest shareholder last year under a deal with its CEO Lip-Bu Tan, played a major role in bringing Apple to the negotiating table. ... smells what it smells.
I'm shocked to see people reason around "why Apple wants this" when the article is pointing right towards coercion. Follow the money, the rest is amateur hour.
Re: Apple, Intel have reached preliminary chip-making deal
#80Intel was not "allowed" to fail. (But Spirit Airlines was) and now the stock is at an all time high. It was only 9 months ago [0] that almost everyone here was bearish (not me [1]). Now it is the opposite. Next we will here some folks wishing they should have joined Intel when it was $20 a share. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44675965 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44676641
Some people also thought Gamestop was a good deal at $400 after 50x-ing...but when you look at fundementals, earnings and actual projected growth and not just the hype, you see the stock for what it really is. At $20 it was a good deal because of the possibilities of long term success (which we haven't seen any actual evidence of yet), but at $125 it is way overpriced. Another way to look at it. TSMC profit in 2025 w…
Trump talking up intel was the time to buy.
But when is the time to get out?
r/wallstreetbets has been amusing to watch.