Trump Touts Apple-Intel Deal to Make Chips in US
The US president announced on Truth Social that Apple will make chips with Intel in America. Intel shares jumped about 10 percent, but the reality behind the post is far smaller.
- On June 18, Trump posted on Truth Social that Apple had agreed to design and make chips with Intel in the US.
- Intel shares jumped about 10 percent, while Apple stock rose around 0.6 percent.
- Per the Wall Street Journal, the deal has been preliminary since May and covers only cheaper chips; TSMC still holds over 90 percent of Apple's premium production.
- The US government has held a 9.9 percent stake in Intel since August, worth roughly 8.9 billion dollars.
Can a single social media post lift a stock by ten percent? It can, if the US president writes it. On June 18, Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social network that Apple had agreed to design and build chips with Intel in America. The market reacted at once, and Intel shares jumped about ten percent.
It sounds like a turning point for American chip manufacturing. Apple, the most famous tech company in the world, bringing some of its chips home and handing them to a struggling Intel. Scratch beneath the headline and the picture looks quite different.
What did Trump actually announce?
The substance fits in one sentence from Truth Social: Apple and Intel are making chips in the US. No numbers, no timeline, no detail on which chips or in what volumes. According to the Wall Street Journal, the two companies reached a preliminary agreement back in May, after more than a year of talks.
That is where the first cold shower comes. Apple would use Intel’s 18A-P process only for cheaper chips. Taiwan’s TSMC, which makes the bulk of Apple’s processors today, keeps over 90 percent of the supply of premium chips. In other words, Apple is not moving its A-series out of Taiwan to America. It is handing Intel the part of the work that is less profitable and less technically demanding.
The way the news broke is telling too. By several reports, Intel executives learned of the announcement from Trump’s post rather than through internal channels, and were reportedly caught off guard. Intel itself declined to comment on what it called a possible agreement. When one side of a deal will not confirm the deal exists, it is worth waiting before popping the champagne.
So why is the stock up ten percent?
Because Intel badly needs good news. The company that was a synonym for American chips for decades has fallen behind rivals in manufacturing in recent years. In August, the US government invested 8.9 billion dollars and took a 9.9 percent stake, an unusual move for a private firm in itself.
Trump likes to brag about it. He claims Intel’s value has risen from around 100 billion to over 600 billion dollars. The figure sounds impressive, but market value can jump on the hint of a deal without a single chip being shipped behind it.
For those of us who pick up a phone every morning, the practical change is zero for now. Your next iPhone almost certainly will not carry a processor from an Intel fab. What is really happening here is industrial politics: pressure to bring production back to the US, the state as a shareholder, and a president negotiating over social media.
Maybe this is the start of a serious shift, or maybe just a well-timed post. The coming months will bring confirmation from both companies, the first concrete contracts and, most of all, the first chip that actually rolls out of a fab. Only then will we know whether this is a deal or a headline. And you, would you trust a phone with a chip made in America more, or do you not care where the chip was born?
