An Intel manufacturing technician holds an Intel Core Ultra series 3 processor (code-named Panther Lake) built on Intel 18A, inside Intel’s new Fab 52 in Chandler, Arizona, in September 2025.
Courtesy: Intel
Intel stock fell Monday, sinking from a Friday surge when an analyst predicted the chip giant was nearing a deal to supply Apple in 2027.
Shares of the chipmaker rose 10% on Friday after TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo posted on X that he expected Intel to begin shipping its lowest-end M processor to Apple as early as second or third quarter 2027.
He said that his latest industry surveys indicate that “visibility on Intel becoming an advanced-node supplier to Apple has recently improved significantly.”
Kuo added that the timeline of the partnership is contingent on the development process after Intel releases its process design kit — the blueprint from which Apple’s engineers can build the chips — which is expected early 2026.
Apple’s silicon chips for its iPhone, iPad and Mac products are currently supplied by TSMC.
In his post, Kuo played down the potential Intel-Apple partnership’s impact on the Taiwanese chip maker, saying that Apple is expected to remain “highly dependent” on the company’s advanced nodes for the “foreseeable future.”
“In absolute terms, order volumes for the lowest-end M processor are relatively small and virtually no material impact on TSMC’s fundamentals or its technology leadership over the next several years.”
Kuo added a deal with Intel would signal strong support from Apple for the Trump administration’s push for its homegrown companies to manufacture in the U.S.
Neither Intel nor Apple immediately responded to a request for comment from CNBC.
‘If Intel pulls it off, there is potential to win higher volume and value business from Apple’
Intel’s stock has seen a resurgence over the past 12 months after years of decline. Share price fell as low as $17.66 in April, before recovering over the past few months.
“Apple is a potential major reference customer whose presence validates Intel’s high-performance foundry offering,” Paul Markham, investment director at GAM Global Equities, told CNBC.
“If Intel pulls it off, there is potential to win higher volume and value business from Apple, for example CPU production for the iPhone, and win business from other large chip designers.”
Intel has had an up and down relationship with Apple since it first announced the chip giant’s processors would power some products in 2005. The iPhone maker transitioned away from the company’s processors at the start of the 2020s.
Last week Intel was on the subject of a lawsuit filed by TSMC, in which it alleged one of its former senior vice president had leaked “confidential information” to the company. Intel did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment at the time.