The Trump administration is in preliminary discussions to acquire an equity stake in former Apple chip supplier Intel, a move aimed at accelerating the company's delayed manufacturing expansion in Ohio (via Bloomberg).
The proposal reportedly emerged following a meeting at the White House between President Donald Trump and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan. The discussions remain at an early stage, and no agreement has been finalized.
Intel's Ohio project was once touted as the world's largest chipmaking facility, but has since faced repeated delays. Production is now scheduled to begin in the next decade. The company has announced major cost reductions, including a 15% workforce cut and the cancellation of planned factories in Germany and Poland.
Intel was once the exclusive supplier of CPUs for the Mac lineup, and maintained a close relationship with Apple for over a decade. The partnership began in 2006 when Apple transitioned from IBM PowerPC processors to Intel's x86 architecture, a shift that allowed Macs to run Windows and benefit from higher performance-per-watt CPUs. The collaboration quickly phased out starting in 2020, when Apple introduced its own Apple silicon chips, beginning with the M1. By 2023, the transition was complete, and Apple no longer sold any Intel-based Macs.
The proposed government stake in Intel comes at a time when the chipmaker is struggling to regain competitiveness in advanced semiconductor manufacturing. While Apple now designs its chips in-house and manufactures them through TSMC, Intel has sought to reestablish itself as a foundry partner for external clients. Earlier this year, officials reportedly floated the idea of TSMC operating Intel's plants in a joint venture.
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