---
title: "Apple's orders ignite \"local chip foundry\" transactions! Intel leaps from AI outcast to \"national-level computing foundation\""
type: "News"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/290211754.md"
description: "Wedbush pointed out that Apple is collaborating with Intel to manufacture chips domestically in the U.S. to alleviate supply chain pressures and the capacity squeeze from TSMC. This move has provided Intel with endorsement from a top client and policy benefits, coupled with the explosive demand for AI inference CPUs, causing its stock price to surge over 10% in early trading to $133, with a market capitalization exceeding $670 billion, being repositioned by the market as a national-level computing foundation in the U.S"
datetime: "2026-06-18T14:04:02.000Z"
locales:
  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/290211754.md)
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/290211754.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/290211754.md)
---

# Apple's orders ignite "local chip foundry" transactions! Intel leaps from AI outcast to "national-level computing foundation"

According to Zhitong Finance APP, the well-known Wall Street investment firm Wedbush stated that American consumer electronics giant Apple (AAPL.US) is expanding its U.S. supply chain by establishing partnerships with the long-established American chip manufacturing giant Intel (INTC.US) to offset the cost and supply shortage pressures related to memory chips. In the view of this firm, this collaboration model based purely on domestic U.S. manufacturing is a win-win for both Apple and Intel—Apple gains supply chain security, advanced chip production capacity backup, and a strategic buffer against reliance on TSMC's capacity, while Intel receives credibility endorsement for its chip manufacturing business from a top client like Apple and benefits from the U.S. semiconductor reshoring policy.

For Intel, whose stock price has surged over 200% this year, the long-term bull market logic of the company, once regarded by some analysts as an "AI discard," has become increasingly solidified. With the explosive demand for CPUs in the AI inference era, coupled with the Trump administration's semiconductor reshoring policy and the growing demand for chips bringing in orders from major clients like Apple and NVIDIA, Intel has re-entered a new round of AI super bull market trajectory driven by "chip manufacturing + data center CPUs," being revalued by the market from "an old IDM lagging behind TSMC" to "a national-level advanced manufacturing and AI computing foundation in the U.S."

More accurately, the strong bull market logic is triggered by a combination of policy endorsement, top client orders, explosive demand for AI server CPUs, and the premium of domestic manufacturing, leading to a re-rating in the capital markets. As of the time of publication, Intel's stock price surged over 10% in early trading, reaching $133, with a market capitalization exceeding $670 billion.

Trump announced that Apple would collaborate with Intel to design and manufacture chips in the U.S., primarily because Apple is highly dependent on TSMC, while TSMC's advanced production lines are being squeezed by AI chip demands from companies like NVIDIA and AMD; Wedbush believes this will help Apple diversify its manufacturing landscape during the AI-driven three to four-year device cycle and enhance supply chain bargaining power and domestic manufacturing flexibility as pressures from rising prices in DRAM, NAND, and other storage begin to impact profit margins. However, it is worth noting that "purely domestic U.S. manufacturing" should be understood as a strategic supplement rather than a complete replacement: Apple still relies on TSMC's most advanced processes in the short term, and Intel must prove yield, cost, power consumption, and delivery capabilities with its 18A and subsequent nodes.

The well-known Wall Street investment firm Melius Research recently raised Intel's target price from $100 to $150, highlighting that the "data center CPU demand frenzy + improving profit prospects for 18A advanced chip processes" are jointly igniting and advancing Intel's super bull market narrative. Star analyst Ben Reitzes from Melius Research stated that the core logic is not simply betting on a PC recovery, but rather re-pricing Intel as the core beneficiary of the AI inference and intelligent computing era + a target challenging TSMC's advanced process/manufacturing reversal narrative.

![image.png](https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.zhitongcaijing.com/image/20260618/1781791219402056.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg) **From Dependence on TSMC to Partnering with Intel Again: Apple Bets on U.S. Foundries to Hedge Against AI Chip and Storage Cost Pressures**

In 2020, Apple announced the transition of Mac to self-developed Apple Silicon, and by 2023, the last Intel Mac Pro was discontinued, essentially completing the "public breakup" with Intel CPUs. However, the two parties are teaming up again, and the cooperation news is not about Apple re-purchasing Intel x86 architecture CPUs or other chips, but rather that Intel's chip foundry business (i.e., Intel Foundry) may manufacture some of Apple's self-developed chips.

According to reports, on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Apple has agreed to collaborate with Intel to design and manufacture its chips in the United States. Intel's stock price surged about 9% in pre-market trading.

Trump's tweet indicated: The U.S. clearly needs to bring the semiconductor industry back home; we design everything, and we (also) need to manufacture right here in America! So I decided to help Intel because we need to design and manufacture our chips in the U.S. First, we brought in NVIDIA, who agreed to work with Intel to manufacture their first-tier chips. Second, Musk agreed to build his TerraFab, the world's largest chip factory, designed in collaboration with Intel's technical team. Finally, Apple has agreed to work with Intel to design and manufacture its chips in the U.S.

"This comes after media reports that Apple is considering using U.S. foundries from Intel and Samsung Electronics to produce certain key processor components that drive its devices, but this collaboration helps Apple focus on chip design, development, and complete foundry and manufacturing in the U.S., reducing heavy reliance on Asian manufacturing facilities amid increasingly frequent geopolitical conflicts and supply chain crises," stated the analyst team led by Dan Ives at Wedbush.

Analysts pointed out that after Apple transitioned from Intel chips to its self-developed Apple Silicon, the company is now expected to reach a significant amount of foundry deals with Intel in the coming years; as Apple enters a three to four-year device update cycle driven by AI, U.S. chip manufacturing for Apple now represents a huge opportunity for Intel.

"Now is the right time to finalize this deal as Apple seeks to diversify its manufacturing landscape; AI chip developers are driving explosive growth in demand for advanced process chips, while Apple is also reducing its heavy reliance on its main overseas supplier, TSMC," Ives and his team stated.

Additionally, analysts noted that Apple has begun to see supply chain pressures, with storage prices now starting to impact the company's overall profit margins. Previously, media reports indicated that Apple plans to raise its product prices to offset the soaring costs of memory and storage chips.

According to media reports, Apple CEO Tim Cook pointed out in an internal statement on Thursday that "the situation has become unsustainable," and "price increases for Apple devices are inevitable." "Although it did not touch on price increases or specify where these price increases would occur in its hardware product lineup, we believe this will come with the release of the new iPhone 18 series and the new foldable iPhone in September," Ives and his team stated.

Dan Ives and the Wedbush analysts added, "While the company has ample capacity to invest in memory chip supply to support AI features in its devices through DRAM and NAND, we believe that given the company's increasing focus on high-end consumer groups, its current collaboration with Intel for foundry services puts Apple in a favorable position to raise prices without sacrificing hardware performance, increasing chip production capacity, and without risking customer attrition."

The Wedbush analysts pointed out that while Apple has diversified its supply chain to other parts of the world, including Vietnam, India, and the United States, this represents an important strategic move for Apple to continue pushing for supply chain diversification to alleviate supply chain pressures in its manufacturing landscape.

"The company has announced plans to invest approximately $600 billion in U.S. manufacturing, but we are now seeing semiconductor manufacturing capacity significantly reconfigured from the consumer electronics sector to AI computing infrastructure, and Apple is currently in the process of securing domestic chip capacity to prepare for a multi-year hardware upgrade cycle driven by AI technology," Ives and his team stated.

**AI inference drives CPU demand + foundry gradually improving, Intel's (INTC.US) bullish narrative is becoming increasingly solid**

Intel is transitioning from being a past PC cycle stock to a composite AI computing infrastructure asset with advanced domestic manufacturing platforms + AI server CPU bases + strategic customer foundry options. If the collaboration with Apple materializes, it will bring top-tier customer endorsement to Intel's foundry; NVIDIA's latest launch of the Vera-Rubin AI computing infrastructure cluster proves that in the era of AI inference, intelligent agents, and GPU clusters, the CPU remains the undisputed key controller for task orchestration, memory access, I/O scheduling, and security isolation.

What truly prompts the market to begin reassessing Intel is not just the Apple orders themselves, but Intel's rediscovery of two irreplaceable positions in AI infrastructure: advanced foundry and packaging, and host CPUs, scheduling CPUs, and data movement CPUs within GPU clusters. Intel's Q1 2026 revenue is projected to be $13.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7%, with data center and AI segment revenue at $5.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 22%, and foundry revenue at $5.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16%; the company also stated that the transition of AI from foundational models to inference and intelligent agents will significantly increase demand for CPUs, wafers, and advanced packaging.

More critically, Intel Xeon 6 will be widely used as the host CPU for NVIDIA's DGX Rubin NVL8 pricing system; NVIDIA previously announced that it would invest $5 billion in Intel, and the two parties will jointly develop AI infrastructure and PC products, with the investment cooperation agreement also including Intel designing custom CPUs for NVIDIA's data centers that can be packaged with GPUs Currently, the most optimistic target price for Intel on Wall Street comes from Melius Research analyst Benjamin Reitzes, who has significantly raised Intel's target price from $100 to $150 while maintaining a "buy" rating. Reitzes' core bullish logic is based on the following: the surge in AI computing infrastructure is exponentially increasing the demand for server CPUs, and Intel's CPU position in AI data centers is regaining value; at the same time, its domestic chip brand and manufacturing assets, potential collaborations with Nvidia/Apple, the comprehensive recovery of its foundry business under Lip-Bu Tan, and the U.S. government's semiconductor reshoring policy are leading to a revaluation of Intel from a traditional CPU company to a unique strategic pricing system in the U.S. stock market characterized by "AI data center CPUs + domestic advanced foundry + domestic advanced packaging."

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