Apple Inc. ignites "domestic chip outsourcing" deal! Intel Corporation (INTC.US) rises from abandoning AI to becoming a "national-level computing power base"

Wall Street's well-known investment firm Wedbush stated that the American consumer electronics giant Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) is expanding its U.S. supply chain by partnering with the American chip manufacturing giant Intel Corporation (INTC.US) to offset the cost and supply shortage pressures related to storage chips. In the view of the firm, this collaboration based on purely U.S.-based manufacturing is a win-win for both Apple Inc. and Intel Corporation - Apple Inc. gains supply chain security, advanced chip capacity backup, and strategic buffering against its reliance on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR's capacity, while Intel Corporation gains the endorsement of Apple Inc. as a top customer for its chip manufacturing business and benefits from the U.S. semiconductor reshoring policy. For Intel Corporation, whose stock price has soared by over 200% this year, this long-term bull market logic has been further solidified. As the demand for CPUs in the AI inference era explodes, coupled with the Trump administration's semiconductor reshoring policy and increasing chip demand, Intel Corporation has embarked on a new round of AI super bull market trajectory driven by both chip manufacturing and data center CPUs, repositioning itself from a "legacy IDM lagging behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR" to a "U.S. national advanced manufacturing and AI computing base" as reevaluated by the market. More precisely, behind this strong bull market logic is a capital market reevaluation triggered by policy endorsements, top customer orders, explosive AI server CPU demand, and the premium of U.S. domestic manufacturing. As of the time of writing, Intel Corporation's stock price surged by over 10% in early U.S. trading to $133, with a market value exceeding $670 billion. President Trump announced that Apple Inc. will design and manufacture chips in the U.S. in a collaboration with Intel Corporation. The core background is Apple Inc.'s heavy reliance on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR, where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR's advanced production lines are being squeezed by AI chip demands from customers like NVIDIA Corporation and AMD. Wedbush believes that this will help Apple Inc. diversify its manufacturing footprint during the AI-driven three to four year device cycle and strengthen its supply chain negotiation and local manufacturing flexibility as storage chip price pressures begin to impact profit margins. However, it is worth noting that "purely U.S.-based manufacturing" should be understood as a strategic supplement rather than a complete replacement: Apple Inc. is still dependent on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR's most advanced process in the short term, and Intel Corporation must prove yield, cost, power consumption, and delivery capabilities at the 18A and subsequent nodes. The well-known investment firm Melius Research recently raised its target price for Intel Corporation from $100 to $150, highlighting the continued improvement in profitability prospects driven by the "data center CPU demand frenzy + 18A advanced chip manufacturing process" for Intel Corporation. Star analyst Ben Reitzes of Melius Research stated that their core logic is not simply betting on the PC revival, but repositioning Intel Corporation as the core beneficiary in the CPU era of AI inference and intelligent body computing and challenging Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR's narrative of advanced process/outsourcing. From the dependence on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR to partnering with Intel Corporation: Apple Inc. bets on U.S. fabs to hedge against AI chip and storage cost pressures. In 2020, Apple Inc. announced the transition of Mac to self-developed Apple Silicon, with the last Intel Corporation Mac Pro ceasing production in 2023, essentially completing the "public breakup" with Intel CPU. However, this time the two sides are joining forces again, with reports of Apple Inc. not repurchasing Intel x86 architecture CPUs or other chips, but potentially having Intel Corporation's chip foundry business (Intel Foundry) manufacture some of its self-developed chips. According to a post by U.S. President Donald Trump on Truth Social on Thursday, Apple Inc. has agreed to collaborate with Intel Corporation to design and manufacture its chips in the U.S. Intel Corporation's stock price soared by about 9% in pre-market trading. Trump's tweet indicates that the U.S. clearly needs to bring its semiconductor industry back to the U.S., declaring, "We design everything, and we (also) need to manufacture now in the U.S.! So I have decided to help Intel Corporation because we need to design and manufacture our chips in the U.S. Firstly, we introduced NVIDIA Corporation, who agreed to collaborate with Intel Corporation to manufacture their first-tier chips. Secondly, Musk agreed to build his TerraFab, the world's largest chip plant, in collaboration with Intel Corporation's technical team. Finally, Apple Inc. has agreed to collaborate with Intel Corporation to design and manufacture its chips in the U.S. "This comes after reports that Apple Inc. is considering using Intel Corporation and Samsung Electronics' U.S.-based fabs to produce some important processors driving its devices. This collaboration will contribute to Apple Inc. conducting chip design, development, complete outsourcing, and manufacturing in the U.S., and focusing more on reducing its heavy reliance on Asian manufacturing facilities under the backdrop of increasing political conflicts and supply chain crises," stated Dan Ives' team of Wedbush analysts. The analysts pointed out that after Apple Inc.'s transition from Intel Corporation chips to its self-developed Apple Silicon, the company will now engage in a significant portion of outsourcing transactions with Intel Corporation in the coming years. As Apple Inc. enters the three to four year device update cycle driven by AI, American chip manufacturing now represents a huge opportunity for Intel Corporation. "Now is the right time to make this deal because Apple Inc. is seeking to diversify its manufacturing footprint; AI chip developers are driving continuous explosive growth in advanced process chip demand, while Apple Inc. is also reducing its heavy reliance on its main overseas supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR," Ives and his team stated. Additionally, the analysts said that Apple Inc. has started to experience supply chain pressure as rising storage prices are beginning to impact the company's overall profit margins. Media reports have suggested that Apple Inc. is planning to increase its product prices to offset the rising costs of memory and storage chips. Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook stated in an internal memo on Thursday, "The situation has become unsustainable," and "inevitably, Apple Inc. devices will increase in price." "Although there have been no details revealed concerning the price hikes and where these increases will specifically appear in its hardware product lineup, we believe that this will come with the launch of the September new iPhone 18 series and the new foldable iPhone," Ives and his team stated. Dan Ives' team at Wedbush added, "While the company has ample capacity to invest in storage chip supply to support AI features in its devices through DRAM and NAND, we believe that as the company increasingly focuses on the high-end consumer group, its collaboration with Intel Corporation for outsourcing now puts Apple Inc. in a favorable position to raise prices without sacrificing hardware performance, increasing chip capacity, and without facing the risk of increased customer churn." Wedbush analysts noted that while Apple Inc. has diversified its supply chain to other regions around the world, including Vietnam, India, and the U.S., this represents an important strategic move for Apple Inc. to continue driving supply chain diversification and relieve supply chain pressure in its manufacturing footprint. "The company has announced an investment of approximately $60 billion in U.S. manufacturing, but we now see semiconductor manufacturing capacity significantly realigning from consumer electronics to AI computing infrastructure, and Apple Inc. is now in the process of locking in local chip capacity to meet a multi-year hardware update cycle driven by AI technology," Ives and his team stated. AI inference is driving CPU demand + outsourcing is on the rise, and the bullish narrative for Intel Corporation (INTC.US) is becoming stronger. Intel Corporation is transitioning from being a stock of the past PC cycle to a composite AI computing infrastructure asset consisting of a U.S.-based advanced manufacturing platform + AI server CPU base + strategic customer outsourcing options. If the collaboration with Apple Inc. materializes, it will provide top customer endorsement for Intel Corporation's outsourcing business; NVIDIA Corporation's recently launched Vera-Rubin AI computing infrastructure cluster proves that in the era of AI inference, intelligent agents, and GPU clusters, the CPU remains the essential controller for task scheduling, memory access, I/O scheduling, and security isolation. What truly prompts the market to reassess Intel Corporation is not just the Apple Inc. orders themselves, but the fact that Intel Corporation has rediscovered two indispensable positions in the AI infrastructure: advanced outsourcing and packaging, and the primary CPU, scheduling CPU, and data transport CPU in GPU clusters. Intel Corporation reported revenue of $13.6 billion in Q1 2026, a 7% year-on-year increase, with the Data Center and AI division revenue at $5.1 billion, a 22% year-on-year growth, and Intel Corporation's outsourcing revenue at $5.4 billion, a 16% year-on-year growth; the company also stated that AI transitioning from basic models to inference and intelligent agents will significantly increase the demand for CPUs, wafers, and advanced packaging. More importantly, the Intel Corporation Xeon 6 processor will be extensively used as the main CPU in NVIDIA Corporation's DGX Rubin NVL8 pricing system; NVIDIA Corporation had previously announced an investment of $5 billion in Intel Corporation, with both companies collaborating on developing AI computing infrastructure and PC products, and the investment agreement also includes Intel Corporation designing custom CPUs for data center tailored to GPU packaging for NVIDIA Corporation. Currently, the most bullish target price for Intel Corporation on Wall Street comes from Melius Research analyst Benjamin Reitzes, who significantly raised Intel Corporation's target price from $100 to $150 and maintained a "buy" rating. Reitzes' core bullish logic is that the AI computing infrastructure construction frenzy is exponentially boosting server CPU demand, and Intel Corporation's position in CPU in AI data centers is regaining value; at the same time, its U.S.-based chip brand and manufacturing assets, potential collaborations with NVIDIA Corporation/Apple Inc., the overall restoration of the outsourcing business under Lip-Bu Tan's leadership, and the U.S. government's semiconductor reshoring policy have repositioned Intel Corporation from a traditional CPU company to a unique strategic rarity in the U.S. stock market of "AI data center CPU + U.S. advanced outsourcing + local advanced packaging".