Five Years After Apple Broke Up With Intel, Intel is Begging for Money

[MacRumors]

Intel and Apple have been in discussions about how to work more closely together, reports Bloomberg. The talks started after Intel approached Apple about a potential investment, but they are in the early stages and might not result in an agreement.

Intel has been struggling to compete with other chipmakers, and earlier this year, the company announced that it was cutting 15 percent of its workforce and canceling factories that it planned to build in Europe. Back in August, the U.S. government purchased a 9.9 percent stake in Intel to speed up Intel's Ohio manufacturing plans.

Since then, Nvidia invested $5 billion in Intel for chips for PCs and data centers, and Japanese company SoftBank also invested $2 billion. Intel is said to be reaching out to several other companies about investments and possible partnerships.

Before transitioning to custom Apple silicon chips starting in 2020, Apple used chips designed by Intel for its Macs. Apple no longer relies on Intel's technology, and uses TSMC to manufacture chips that Apple designs.

Apple also worked with Intel on 5G modem chips when it was attempting to move away from Qualcomm technology. Intel was not able to manufacture modem chips that were up to Apple's standards, so the deal fell through. Intel ended up exiting the modem chip business, and selling its modem business to Apple.

There is no chance that Apple would switch back to Intel chips for its products, so it is not clear what kind of deal the two companies could establish. TSMC makes all of Apple's chips, but it is possible that Apple could transition to having some components manufactured by Intel.

Article Link: Five Years After Apple Broke Up With Intel, Intel is Begging for Money

 

[jonnysods]

I saw that comments were disabled for a second, didn't think this was that controversial!

I can also understand why they cancelled plans in Europe. I have a few friends in international manufacturing markets and some companies are choosing to shut down plants in Europe due to their insane energy costs.

 

[mlayer]

This is so sad. What could Intel give Apple these days? Apple already bought the wireless division that eventually made the C1 & C1X. Does Apple use any other legacy Intel tech? IIRC, Intel dipped its toe in ARM when they got StrongARM from DEC during the Newton era. Did Intel do anything with it? Of course not. These days Intel is a money pit and may be doomed to becoming a meme stock.

 

[julesme]

If Apple invests, it will (in my opinion) likely be a small amount, a token really, in the spirit of encouraging competition among a (potential) future foundry vendor.

It would be positive for Apple longer-term if there were more foundry businesses for them to partner with.

 

[Nom4d]

I think the title word begging should be changed. It’s not begging. It’s aggressive partnership-seeking and capital raising is what intel is trying to do.

 

[hieranonymous]

Back when Intel was still bigger than Apple, Steve Jobs approached Intel multiple times about developing custom silicon for Apple’s laptops and smartphones. Intel declined every time. That decision essentially made Intel irrelevant once Apple fully embraced ARM and the rest of the industry followed Apple’s lead. The then-CEO of Intel later admitted that saying no to Jobs was his biggest blunder.

 

[Martin Bland]

Apple also worked with Intel on 5G modem chips when it was attempting to move away from Qualcomm technology. Intel was not able to manufacture modem chips that were up to Apple's standards, so the deal fell through. Intel ended up exiting the modem chip business, and selling its modem business to Apple.

Apple was able to execute with the leftovers of Intel's failure. Intel hasn't been able to execute for over a decade at this point. Intel needs to successfully execute on something to be of interest to Apple. The most interesting for Apple would be for Intel to be a fab alternative to TSMC. But Intel is showing no signs of being able to execute on its process...

Half jokingly, Intel stands a better chance of executing on anything if it offers itself for sale to Apple. At the very low price that Apple prefers.

 

[MrENGLISH]

Intel intentionally dragged their feet for a full decade before Apple made the switch. It is their own fault they are where they are at today.

 

[jimimac71]

I think the title word begging should be changed. It’s not begging. It’s aggressive partnership-seeking and capital raising is what intel is trying to do.

I agree with this but "begging" is probably more of an attention getter.
I follow MacRumors and Chrome Unboxed.
Chromebooks seem to do better without Intel CPUs in terms of Android compatibility and battery life.
I do not follow the Microsoft PC world but AMD is doing well there too, aren't they?
Even if Intel is to blame for their own losses, it is sad times for a tech giant.

 

[citysnaps]

I can think of many *far more interesting* investment opportunities for Apple. That could payoff nicely for Apple. Going with Intel would just slow Apple down.

 

[Macman1138]

Apple and Intell can go a long way to patching things up with Apple by Apple supporting the remaining Intel Macs with Tahoe.
There are several Mac models that can run Tahoe just fine with Apple’s support
I’m talking more specifically about the iMac Pro models, the very best iMacs yet so far.

 

[Nom4d]

I agree with this but "begging" is probably more of an attention getter.
I follow MacRumors and Chrome Unboxed.
Chromebooks seem to do better without Intel CPUs in terms of Android compatibility and battery life.
I do not follow the Microsoft PC world but AMD is doing well there too, aren't they?
Even if Intel is to blame for their own losses, it is sad times for a tech giant.

Indeed it is sad for any company that is trouble like this. My main thoughts and prayers are with the ordinary workers who have bills to pay and rents and mortgages end of the day they are the ones who suffer the most when it comes to this uncertainty and job security.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

I think the title word begging should be changed. It’s not begging. It’s aggressive partnership-seeking and capital raising is what intel is trying to do.

Maybe from other companies it’s not begging. But, from Apple, where it would be money from Apple for Intel to do nothing form Apple, that’s begging.

 

[Nom4d]

Maybe from other companies it’s not begging. But, from Apple, where it would be money from Apple for Intel to do nothing form Apple, that’s begging.

Yes but maybe it’s a case of Apple thinking back and saying okay we will help you out this one time considering we have history together and we can work out a payment plan of some sort. But I know that’s wishful thinking and not Apple like.

 

[IJustWannaTalk]

Microsoft did save Apple by investing, once.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Back when Intel was still bigger than Apple, Steve Jobs approached Intel multiple times about developing custom silicon for Apple’s laptops and smartphones. Intel declined every time. That decision essentially made Intel irrelevant once Apple fully embraced ARM and the rest of the industry followed Apple’s lead. The then-CEO of Intel later admitted that saying no to Jobs was his biggest blunder.

And, there’s decent reason to believe that, after the world saw Apple running Intel macOS code faster on their ARM systems, that boosted the interest in Windows on ARM.

 

[TechnoMonk]

Microsoft did save Apple by investing, once.

No. They settled the lawsuit. Not really charity. All that was left was Steve taking jabs at Microsoft in his speeches.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Microsoft did save Apple by investing, once.

And both companies got something out of that. Microsoft got Apple dropping a lawsuit and Apple got Office support continued. In this case, Apple would be getting zip.

And, that was for non-voting shares, and Microsoft sold all those shares by 2003 for a profit.

 

[Christopher Kim]

Apple would of course never go back to using Intel's CPUs... but as the primary US-based semi-conductor company with its own fabs in the US, there is definitely a case to helping support/develop the capabilities of Intel as the US-champion in the foundry/semi-conductor space.

Basically why the US government and other US-based companies are developing these partnerships and investing in Intel.

In today's geopolitical climate, with US and China relations where it is, and the continued uncertainty on Taiwan's independence, it seems prudent that the US (and Apple) have a legitimate option for domestic chipmaking.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

In today's geopolitical climate, with US and China relations where it is, and the continued uncertainty on Taiwan's independence, it seems prudent that the US (and Apple) have a legitimate option for domestic chipmaking.

The problem is, Intel isn’t a legitimate option. With the investment Intel has seen from others, they’ve got plenty of money to try to do things differently without having to be concerned about profit for awhile. But, even after the deals, it’s the same Intel, just with more money. The same Intel that have been on a downward slide that, unfortunately, was not caused by a lack of money, but a lack of performance. Billions of dollars doesn’t magically turn into performance.

 

[gpat]

Meh... kinda baity for a title. Apple should really owe some gratitude to Intel, even today.
I remember the latest PowerPC days of Apple and they were in really some deep sh*t.
Switching from PPC to Intel in 2006 was WAY more necessary than switching to Apple Silicon in 2020.

I'll probably get hate for this comment, but Intel really revived Mac as a platform in 2006, which was necessary for birthing the Apple we have today.
Should probably have done it way sooner, completely skipping the G5 which was a major fail.

PowerPC CPUs manufacturers were complete amateurs and Steve Jobs couldn't wait to get rid of them.
Motorola, Freescale... it was all a big freakshow.
Steve probably lost some months of life because of fighting with them, no joke.

Intel is struggling today, but I'm sure they'll manage. Their 12gen CPUs were nice products.
Also Lunar Lake mobile CPUs are still top class for x86 even if not as good as Apple Silicon.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Yes but maybe it’s a case of Apple thinking back and saying okay we will help you out this one time considering we have history together and we can work out a payment plan of some sort. But I know that’s wishful thinking and not Apple like.

There’s not really much Apple can do to help Intel, though. They’ve already received billions. And, if Apple’s not ponying up, like twice of what’s already been given, it would make a negligible difference to a company that’s still trying to learn how to create performant efficient chips of the types that are running more and more of the world’s products.

 

[jimimac71]

Apple and Intell can go a long way to patching things up Apple supporting the remaining Intel Macs with Tahoe.
There are several Mac models that can run Tahoe just fine with Apple supporting.
I’m talking about the iMac Pro models, the very best iMacs yes so far.

Windows doesn't run on an M Series Mac without virtualization, right?
How well does that work and it is still relevant these days?
A Mac with 16 GB RAM is going to be a clunker for both Mac OS and Windows if you have to share that RAM.
My Windows 10 PC is 10+ years old and will continue until 10/26.
It may not be my plan to get another PC at all. An iPad with keyboard is all I would need.
While I like Android, iPad would be a better fit.
How many people are willing to buy a PC and a Mac so they can run both OSs?
At the same time, Apple is not likely to build an Intel Mac just for Windows.

 

[Plutonius]

Intel at the time didn't lose much when Apple left.

Instead, it's all the decisions Intel made since then that caused it's current state.

 

[Abazigal]

If Apple invests, it will (in my opinion) likely be a small amount, a token really, in the spirit of encouraging competition among a (potential) future foundry vendor.

It would be positive for Apple longer-term if there were more foundry businesses for them to partner with.

The only reason I can think of is China. If Apple ever needs a backup plan in the event that Taiwan is invaded and TSMC’s production capabilities get impacted, Intel might be their only way out?