In 2020, Apple began phasing out Intel processors in Mac computers in favor of its own chips, dealing a heavy blow to its long-term partners. This shift has proven to be beneficial not only for Apple itself, but also for TSMC, which became the manufacturer of Apple’s Silicon series of processors.
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In June, U.S. President Trump announced that Apple had agreed to cooperate with Intel to produce some processors in the United States. However, one shouldn’t expect too much from the two companies to resume their relationship. One of the long-standing issues in their collaboration remains trust, and it’s clear Intel can’t fully restore that trust.
The history goes back to the days of Steve Jobs. Apple proposed to Intel to develop mobile processors, but was rejected, so the chips for the first-generation iPhone were produced by Samsung. The partnership isn’t ideal either: Apple doesn’t trust Samsung very much because the Korean company is also its direct competitor in the mobile device market, and their rivalry will only intensify as Android gains popularity.
At the same time, TSMC is working with companies such as Nvidia and Qualcomm to develop its semiconductor contract manufacturing business. The Taiwanese company doesn’t produce its own processors that compete with customer products, which helps it gain customers’ trust. This attracted Apple’s attention, and at the end of 2010, Apple Vice President Jeff Williams, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou and TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou held a tripartite meeting.
Williams told Chen that Apple wanted TSMC to produce all its chips. Over the next few months, the two sides discussed moving about half of the order to a Taiwanese contractor, but Apple wanted more. Negotiations subsequently stalled as the company considered Intel as an alternative manufacturing partner. Chen doubts Intel can win Apple’s trust. According to his assessment, TSMC is already ahead of Intel in terms of production capacity and is roughly at the same level in terms of technology. In March 2011, Tim Cook told Chen that Apple decided to cooperate with TSMC.
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Apple’s distrust of Intel is a complex issue, but subsequent events have shown that this attitude cannot be said to be unfounded. In March 2025, Intel began a large-scale business reorganization under the leadership of Chen Liwu. The company abandoned construction of factories in Germany and Poland and slowed a project in Ohio. As part of new financial discipline, Intel decided not to increase production capacity without confirming customer orders.
The result is a vicious cycle. Intel was unwilling to invest in expanding production without orders, and potential large customers were unable to place orders with it without certainty that the necessary capacity was actually available. The company is aggressively seeking outside customers for its contract business while facing pressure from the White House to increase U.S. production of advanced chips. As a result, Intel successfully attracted the attention of Google, Tesla and Nvidia.
But Intel made a serious mistake when it came to its relationship with Apple. To reassure potential customers of its ability to quickly ramp up the necessary production capacity, the company told Apple it was already in talks with equipment suppliers. However, during these negotiations, Intel told suppliers that Apple was already a customer and used the company’s name as an argument to gain priority in the supply of equipment.
Therefore, Intel not only violated Apple’s traditional confidentiality rules, but also told potential customers that it had disclosed confidential information to third parties. It turns out that in order to prove to Apple its reliability as a manufacturing partner, Intel did exactly the opposite.
For Apple, which is known for its culture of secrecy and demands the same discretion from its partners, the incident is another reason to be skeptical of Intel. Instead, TSMC remains silent on customers in principle and tries not to compete with them. CC Wei, the head of the company, explained that the reason for maintaining a long-term cooperative relationship with Apple is precisely because it hopes to maintain trust at all costs.
Still, the current state of the semiconductor market and U.S. authorities’ desire for local production of advanced chips are forcing Apple to partner with Intel again. TSMC remains the primary manufacturer of Apple processors, and Intel has yet to prove that it can be an equally reliable manufacturing partner for the company.
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