Intel has been severely suffering from its chips’ production, and it has caused severe delays in the company’s CPU launch. However, the troubles of the blue team don’t end there. Fabrication nodes, shortages of materials, delays in product launches have caused the company’s many customers to look for other reliable suppliers such as the TSMC.
One such customer of Intel is Apple, which has now chosen to partner with other silicon suppliers. Apple’s current plan is to gradually drop Intel’s processors from all Mac devices and equip them with its new M processors that TSMC fabricates.
We all know how well the Cupertino giants M1 chip’s performance, which was integrated into last year’s MacBooks, has been receiving mostly positive reception. Apple intends to continue improving this line of processors thanks to a newly-struck deal with TSMC that ensures development beyond the upcoming 2 nm nodes.
However, according to sources, Intel is not taking this too well. The blue recently started attacking Apple’s M1-powered devices in an ad campaign that employs former “I’m a Mac” actor Justin Long. But, it’s not just that the blue team is mocking the Cupertino giant in its ad; Intel is eventually planning to possibly regain Apple as a customer with the new Intel Foundry Services initiative that is part of the grand IDM 2.0 strategy freshly announced by Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger.
Sources indicate that Intel is finally ready to dedicate foundry capacity for certain fabless companies in the U.S. and Europe through two new facilities in Arizona. During the Intel Unleashed webcast, Gelsinger name-dropped Apple as a potential customer, and Intel is also prepared to implement non-x86 architectures.
“IFS will be differentiated from other foundry offerings with a combination of leading-edge process technology and packaging, committed capacity in the U.S. and Europe, and a world-class IP portfolio for customers, including x86 cores as well as ARM and RISC-V ecosystem IPs.”
Apple has an agreement with TSMC to develop and produce ARM-based chips. Still, production allocations could become problematic since TSMC also has other major customers like AMD, Qualcomm, and even Nvidia and Intel is willing to help Apple diversify its supply chain that now heavily relies on TSMC.
