--- title: "Apple and Intel join forces again. \"Apple supply chain oracle\" Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that 18A-P will test the waters for low-end chips" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/286494322.md" description: "Apple and Intel have reached a preliminary foundry cooperation agreement. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo expects that the deal will mainly focus on low-end chips for the iPhone, with about 80% of the order mix concentrated on the iPhone product line. Small-scale foundry testing is expected to take place this year, with production capacity gradually increasing in 2027 and 2028. This move provides early validation for Intel's foundry business, which is crucial for its future ability to take on external clients" datetime: "2026-05-15T02:02:03.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/286494322.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286494322.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/286494322.md) --- # Apple and Intel join forces again. "Apple supply chain oracle" Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that 18A-P will test the waters for low-end chips According to the Zhitong Finance APP, as media reports cite informed sources stating that Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) has reached a preliminary foundry cooperation agreement with American chip manufacturing giant Intel (INTC.US), a widely followed analyst in the Apple supply chain believes that this deal may significantly favor the relatively low-end chips for the iPhone. Guo Mingqi, an analyst at TF International Securities, posted on social media platform X that this deal may focus on "relatively low-end and legacy previous-generation" chips aimed at iPhone, iPad, and Mac series Apple products, and will utilize Intel's 18A-P series chip manufacturing process. He also added that these chips will adopt Intel's exclusive Foveros advanced packaging. Given that Apple's sales are still heavily skewed towards the iPhone, Guo Mingqi believes that about 80% of the order mix focuses on the iPhone product line, "reflecting Apple's terminal device sales mix." According to the latest media reports, the two companies are actively collaborating again after several years, with small-scale foundry testing expected this year, and capacity ramp-up likely to occur in 2027 and 2028, followed by a slight decline in 2029. Guo Mingqi further stated that the iPhone manufacturer is also "actively evaluating" Intel's other advanced process node technologies. If Apple indeed tests some of the low-end/previous-generation chips for iPhone, iPad, and Mac in Intel's 18A-P+Foveros foundry/advanced packaging system, it indicates that Intel Foundry (Intel's chip foundry business) has at least gained early validation from one of the world's most discerning chip customers, which is extremely critical for its long-term acceptance of external clients and rebuilding the foundry narrative. Apple is expected to showcase its significant update based on Gemini, Apple Intelligence, and the AI Siri super AI voice assistant at the WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) in June. Apple is currently undergoing a thorough reconstruction of the Siri voice assistant based on cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology and plans to unveil the first version of the long-awaited Siri AI voice assistant at this year's global developer conference in June. The new version of Siri, which was announced at the 2024 WWDC, has never been officially launched, and the plan originally scheduled for spring 2025 has been repeatedly delayed. The significant release of the new version of Siri is seen as a key counterattack by Apple under the pressure of continuous updates and iterations from competitors like ChatGPT and Claude. Guo Mingqi has focused on the "Apple supply chain" and consumer electronics industry research for many years, accurately predicting the update trends of Apple's next-generation iPhone, iPad, and other consumer electronics product lines, as well as the future technological landscape of the "Apple supply chain." In 2020, Apple announced the transition of the Mac to self-developed Apple Silicon, and in 2023, the last Intel Mac Pro was discontinued, essentially completing the "public breakup" with Intel CPUs. However, this time the two sides are teaming up again, and the cooperation news suggests that Apple is not re-purchasing Intel x86 CPUs, but may allow Intel Foundry to manufacture some of its self-developed chips **Intel's Bull Market Narrative Gains Momentum: The Revival of Chip Foundry Narrative Heats Up, but the True Test Remains Yield and Mass Production** Further analysis by Ming-Chi Kuo indicates that it is still unclear when Intel's chip foundry business, which has been struggling for years, will begin mass production at scale and deliver chip foundry products to major U.S. tech companies like Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, and Apple, who urgently need domestic production capacity. The company's goal is to achieve a yield of 50% to 60% for high-end advanced processes next year, and then further improve it. In contrast, according to some industry chain researchers, TSMC (TSM.US), known as the "king of chip foundry," currently has a yield of over 70% for its most advanced 2nm process node. Therefore, Kuo added that Apple may still heavily rely on TSMC for the core chip foundry needs of most of its flagship products, with the proportion possibly reaching 90% or even higher. However, Apple has also realized that, given the unprecedented AI spending boom shows no signs of ending, TSMC's foundry capacity may continue to tilt towards core AI processors focused on massive AI workloads, such as data center CPUs and AI GPUs/TPUs. For Intel's wild bull market trajectory this year, the dynamic news of Apple's renewed partnership with Intel undoubtedly strengthens the bull market narrative for Intel. Following the news of Apple's foundry collaboration, Intel's stock price surged by as much as 19%, and it has risen an astonishing 220% this year. However, this also significantly raises the performance delivery threshold. In other words, Intel's stock price trajectory is no longer solely focused on the super cycle of data center server CPUs but is trading on a grander narrative of "the second supply source for advanced foundry of American tech giants." However, if the yield, mass production pace, customer shipment scale, or gross margin improvements of the 18A-P process do not meet expectations, this highly elastic bull market could quickly face withdrawal pressure ### Related Stocks - [AAPL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPL.US.md) - [04335.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/04335.HK.md) - [INTC.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/INTC.US.md) - [XSD.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/XSD.US.md) - [AAPX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPX.US.md) - [SMH.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SMH.US.md) - [AAPU.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPU.US.md) - [SOXL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SOXL.US.md) - [AAPB.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPB.US.md) - [INTW.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/INTW.US.md) - [SOXX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SOXX.US.md) - [AAPD.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPD.US.md) - [AAPY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPY.US.md) - [APLY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/APLY.US.md) ## Related News & Research - [Intel stock rises on report of second huge chip customer](https://longbridge.com/en/news/285959316.md) - ["We Talk to Intel All The Time," Intel Stock (NASDAQ:INTC) Blasts Up With New Apple Agreement](https://longbridge.com/en/news/285765325.md) - [Intel Stock Has More Than Tripled – But Bank of America Says Don't Get Too Excited](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286009906.md) - [Intel could be moving closer to an Apple partnership—and its stock is racing higher](https://longbridge.com/en/news/285763445.md) - [If You Invested $100 In Intel Stock 5 Years Ago, You Would Have This Much Today](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286441099.md)