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

Intel: Let's do an ad campaign where we'll get the guy from I'm A Mac, and have him dump on Apple for using their own chips, that'll get a lot of people talking about Intel.

Intel market researchers, 30 days later: They're talking alright. Apple's furious, and planning to burry us under a mountain of sales receipts for non-Intel equipment they sell. And customers think the ads are stupid and are saying we look like idiots.

Intel: We were just poking fun!!! We want to make those chips we just insulted!!!
 
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Ok im agree with him, apple needs other partner for chips making and needs innovation in their ecosystem. Thinner and faster laptops is so 90
 
anoobis said:
Benchmarks are just that. Real everyday usage is different. For my uses (compiling code), my 2019 (Intel) MBP is way faster than my M1.
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My 2018 13” i7 MBP was significantly slower than my M1 MacBook Air for compiling. I guess if you have an i9 16” MacBook Pro you’ll have to wait a few weeks.
 
One of the reasons companies like TSMC etc. are able to beat Intel is that they are a generic foundry i.e. their customer base is huge and that makes for an enormous influx of cash that they can subsequently use to fund the mammoth R&D necessary to track Moore's Law. Intel's customer base is smaller (because they're more specific in what they make) and so they can't afford that R&D expense. I wonder if they need to change their business model to be more like a foundry. It's easy to bash Intel, but it would be a profound loss to the US IC manufacturing capability if Intel just withered away. That being said, even if they adopt that policy, they are still a decade or so behind...
 
There’s a shortage of chip manufacturing. TMSC might be doing quite well now and giving Apple what they need, but it only needs China to “re-unify” Taiwan and who’s to say that their chip supply will as robust and reliable (or as cheap). It could come to be, down the line when Apple might be looking for Intel’s support with their contract foundries, so it makes sense for both companies to not burn bridges.
 
I'm excited for Intel becoming competitive again, the latest presentation by the new CEO felt really promising! The industry really needs that company to be back in the business, especially with the recent shortages and too big reliance on TSMC and Samsung.
 
I think he's just trying to save face. First it was the "just a lifestyle company" comment... and now the Justin Long commercials.

Maybe he should just keep his mouth shut and focus on Intel stuff. :p

He might have a point about Apple being "wholly dependent" on TSMC... but it's worked out so far, right? Don't they fab all of Apple's chips for iPhones, iPads, and now M1 Macs? Hundreds of millions of chips per year?

And if Apple needed another chip fabrication partner... would Intel be high on that list?
 
Kevin2055 said:
So Intel want to make the CPU that directly compete with its own CPU? Interesting business model!
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Happens all the time. Sometimes a company intentionally does the same thing twice with a different team in charge of each solution, making them in competition. Sometimes it's unintentional.

The only thing about this that puzzles me is that Intel waited so long. It's like Intel and Apple only communicated with each other via public announcements and actual product launches. Maybe Intel called Apple's bluff in private, but it wasn't a bluff.
 
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teknikal90 said:
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.
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I'm European, but nevertheless I would be very happy if Intel could offer a viable alternative to TSMC. There are geopolitical and geoeconomical factors which make TSMC's dominant position quite risky.
 
Apple should work with Intel to make chips for it. The most sophisticated chip manufacturing should be in North America. Western companies should not be so exposed to the powder keg that is Asia.

If there's a love-hate business relationship between Apple and Samsung, Apple could buy LG's device making business and use LG screens.
 
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Mick-Mac said:
One of the reasons companies like TSMC etc. are able to beat Intel is that they are a generic foundry i.e. their customer base is huge and that makes for an enormous influx of cash that they can subsequently use to fund the mammoth R&D necessary to track Moore's Law. Intel's customer base is smaller (because they're more specific in what they make) and so they can't afford that R&D expense.
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Intel has a far bigger R&D budget than TSMC (~$13B vs ~$3B). Of course that's not directly comparable because Intel does more than just manufacturing, but their process woes are not caused by a lack of money.

But you are right that the expenses to advance chip scaling have become huge as these companies are approaching limits set by the laws of physics. In fact, to some extent they are pooling resources through suppliers like ASML (which is the sole vendor for leading edge chip scanners with EUV, which are exorbitantly expensive).

Mick-Mac said:
I wonder if they need to change their business model to be more like a foundry.
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Their current business has bigger profit margins than pure-play foundries. It's not entirely clear to me what the financial story behind their announcement is. It looks like they want to capitalize on their scale and a trend in the industry to become less dependent on Asia for various reasons. They also have leading packaging technologies which would allow them to customize products for customers more easily.
 
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MacRumors said:


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.jpg

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.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."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.

Article Link: Intel CEO Expands on Desire to Make Apple Silicon Chips, Touts 'Competitive Fun' With Apple
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I enjoy the conversations like if the M Chips are the best thing ever made. However, Intel is a supplier and Apple is not the only customer. If Apple had ever made any good processors to supply to other companies, Intel wouldn't be here today. I hope Intel stays long and continues to Innovate, something that Apple stopped doing long ago. Apple is already owned by China anyway.
 
Corsig said:
I’m not a CEO but I can imagine mocking a hopefully future client isn’t the best way to win them over
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It’s irrelevant. If intel can provide good manufacturing at a good price apple won’t loose a second thinking about the ads.

It’s odd though, mocking a current and hopefully future client one day and declaring the next day you’ll be thrilled to keep doing business with them.
 
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A few days ago I posted this benchmark comparison. What I forgot to look up were the prices. Intel's 8280L is currently selling for an absurd $21,500 per unit. The AMD is around $4,500. I'd love to see a box packed with M1 type chips. Some great possibilities there I hope :)

Cinebench R23 (faster is better)
AMD Threadripper 3990x — 74,422
Intel Xeon Platinum 8280L — 49,876
Intel i9-7980XE — 28,196
Apple M1 — 7,760
 
How about a new commercial...

Gelsinger is escorted by two Koreans to the Apple Room at Apple Park. Tim Cook is there seated on a throne. Gelsinger kisses Tim's Apple Watch and says "Intel would like to make Chips for Apple".
 
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