Intel CEO Expands on Desire to Make Apple Silicon Chips, Touts 'Competitive Fun' With Apple

In an interview with Yahoo Finance today, Intel's newly appointed CEO Pat Gelsinger said that the ongoing competition between his company and Apple is "fun," while also saying he hopes to make amends with the Cupertino tech giant.

pat gelsinger intel
Over the next two years, Apple will transition its Mac lineup away from Intel processors to its own Apple silicon chips. Apple is already well underway on the transition, having released three Mac computers based on its M1 SoC. Intel in response launched a marketing campaign last week to label Macs and ‌M1‌ as inferior to Intel processors.

Despite the barrage of attacks, Gelsinger has indicated that he hopes to have Apple as a future customer. In his interview with Yahoo Finance, Gelsinger said that Apple relies too heavily on its current supplier, TSMC, for manufacturing Apple silicon and that Intel wants to offer its own services instead.

Apple is a customer, and I hope to make them a big foundry customer because today they're wholly dependent on Taiwan Semiconductor. We want to present great options for them to leverage our foundry services, as well, just like we're working with Qualcomm and Microsoft to leverage our foundry. We're going to be delivering great technology, some things that can't be done anywhere else in the world.

Gelsinger attributed the recent tense competition with Apple to the fact that there's still room for innovation in the industry and the bonus that PC demand is the highest it's been in over a decade. Gelsinger went on to say there's "competitive fun going on with Apple and the Mac ecosystem."

So obviously, you've seen some of the competitive energies [in chipmaking] resume because there's a lot of great innovation to be done, and we haven't seen PC demand at this level for a decade and a half. The world needs more of that, and there is competitive fun going on with Apple and the Mac ecosystem.

As part of its anti-Apple silicon marketing campaign, Intel recently hired former "I'm a Mac" actor Justin Long to star in a series of ads comparing ‌M1‌ Macs to laptops powered by Intel processors. Additionally, Intel has turned to Twitter for the campaign and has created its own website to compare ‌M1‌ Macs against PCs.

Top Rated Comments

Spock Avatar
29 months ago
Go home Intel, you’re drunk.
Score: 74 Votes (Like | Disagree)
teknikal90 Avatar
29 months ago
If you’re American and you’re cheering against Intel I think you need to think more about this situation, and how eventually, that will impact you.
You want your country to be competitive in the global landscape. It is sad that Apple (an American company) has to look to a foreign country for its chip making needs, when there’s Intel still around just down the road.

it’s bad for the American industry ultimately if Intel were to die.
Score: 62 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GreenPixel Avatar
29 months ago
Translation: Apple is going to the moon and we want to hang on their coat tails.
Score: 53 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vagos Avatar
29 months ago
How is being way below in benchmarks "fun" ???
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ultramove69 Avatar
29 months ago
Kinda looked like Intel was doing some bridge burning in recent advertising. So odd.
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Corsig Avatar
29 months ago
I’m not a CEO but I can imagine mocking a hopefully future client isn’t the best way to win them over
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)