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• Apple is in early talks with Intel about using Intel’s U.S. facilities to manufacture chips.

• The discussions focus on Apple potentially adding Intel as a supplementary or alternative supplier to TSMC.

• The talks are described as preliminary, with no formal agreement announced.

For investors watching NasdaqGS:INTC, these discussions come at a time when the stock is trading at $108.18, following very large 1 year returns and a 174.7% return year to date. The share price move has been especially sharp recently, with the stock up 28.0% over the past week and 114.7% over the past month.

The possibility of Apple becoming a foundry customer is central to Intel’s effort to grow its contract manufacturing business and attract large external clients. While there is no certainty these talks will lead to a deal, the fact that Apple is considering Intel for U.S. based production is a key development investors may want to track closely.

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1 thing going right for Intel that this headline doesn’t cover.

Apple sounding out Intel for U.S. based chip production sits at the intersection of Intel’s foundry build out, government backed capacity push, and the broader AI and data center story that has driven the stock’s very large 1 year return. For you as an investor, the key point is not just the revenue that a future Apple contract might represent, but how it could validate Intel’s advanced manufacturing for other large customers that are already using its CPUs, packaging and AI infrastructure products. Recent fixed income offerings show Intel is raising long term capital to fund factories, while new leadership in client computing and physical AI is intended to tighten execution across PCs, edge devices and AI workloads. Apple’s early stage talks do not change the fact that foundry is still loss making and Q1 2026 results included a net loss of US$3,728m, but they help explain why the market is paying close attention to who ultimately fills those U.S. fabs and on what terms.

How This Fits Into The Intel Narrative

• The possibility of Apple using Intel as a foundry customer supports the community narrative that emphasizes AI focused products and foundry services as potential future growth drivers, built on better factory utilization and external contracts.

• The reliance on heavy bond issuance and ongoing foundry losses means any Apple related capacity commitments could also stretch capital needs. This challenges the narrative assumption that Intel can tighten costs while scaling its foundry footprint.

• The Apple talks highlight supply chain resilience and U.S. onshoring as potential differentiators versus Taiwan Semiconductor and Samsung. These points are not fully captured in the narrative’s focus on internal restructuring and AI product roadmaps.