The historic handshake between Apple and Intel.

Analysts remain concerned about the progress of product completion from Apple's partnership with Intel to manufacture chips in the US.

The collaboration between Apple and Intel meets the practical needs of both parties. Photo: Reuters .

According to Reuters , Apple's shift to sourcing chips from Intel, as announced by the Washington administration last week, makes sense, with one side's urgent needs meeting the other's grand ambitions. However, the situation is not that simple. Experts believe that any advanced Intel chip line would take 2-3 years to manufacture, and even longer to translate into actual profit due to the complex production process and stringent standards required.

Apple - Intel Strategic Partnership

Although the agreement has not been officially announced by either company, it is seen as a perfect fit, combining Intel's efforts to reposition its reputation in contract chipmaking with Apple's thirst for manufacturing capacity.

Apple's longtime partner, TSMC, is struggling to meet the booming demand for AI chips from giants like Nvidia and Google. Apple CEO Tim Cook himself admitted in April that supply constraints at this contract manufacturer had hampered iPhone sales.

Behind this agreement lies a macro-level strategic equation. Intel has emerged as a core pillar in the plan to rebuild the US domestic chip manufacturing industry through tariff policies and incentives, thanks to the government's 10% stake in the company and a $5 billion investment from Nvidia at the suggestion of President Donald Trump.

Malcolm Penn, CEO of chip research firm Future Horizons, stated: "The plausible scenario is that it will take two to three years before the first chips leave the assembly line. Designing a system-on-a-chip (SoC) of that complexity takes about two years, and it takes an additional four months to run the production cycle to scale up production."

Penn noted that this assessment is only true under the assumption that Intel's technology is fully mature and its design tools are reliable enough for Apple to rely on. The lack of practical experience in this area makes the deal a risky move with significant financial and commercial risks, akin to a "forced marriage."

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Long-term performance challenges

After missing out on the early stages of the AI ​​craze, Intel is seeing promising initial progress, securing Tesla as a customer in April and paving the way for a more significant partnership with Apple.

Nevertheless, analysts remain divided on which Intel manufacturing process Apple will choose. Some experts predict Apple may follow Tesla's lead and move to Intel's next-generation 14A process, a solution that is still years away from large-scale production but is built on some of the world's most advanced chip manufacturing tools.

Conversely, many believe that Apple will sacrifice cutting-edge technological advantages for stability, prioritizing the 18A-P process, an improved version of Intel's most advanced process that began trial production this month, or an older but more reliable technology node like Intel 3.

Bob O'Donnell, an analyst at TECHnalysis Research, believes that most commercial products from this collaboration will not appear before 2028 or 2029, so everything still needs a long time.

However, if this information is accurate, it would be an extremely important development for Intel's chip foundry business and the entire semiconductor manufacturing industry in the US.

Daniel Newman, CEO of technology research firm Futurum Group, agrees, stating that large-scale production of Apple-designed chips is unlikely to occur before the end of 2027 or early 2028, with initial phases focusing on less critical components for the MacBook Air or some iPad Pro models.

Apple will most likely adopt a defensive strategy by testing Intel on lower-end product lines before entrusting them with core chips. Intel, a company with a history of delays and quality issues with chips, will have to meet Apple's very high expectations for product acceptance rates, a stringent standard the world's largest tech company is familiar with from working with TSMC.

Paul Meeks, head of technology research at Freedom Capital Markets, offered a more cautious view, suggesting that investors are valuing Intel based on the assumption that it can perfectly execute the partner's requirements.

"Even though Intel has made great strides with its latest manufacturing processes, I think we should all at least tone down our expectations for an absolutely perfect result," he said.

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Source: https://znews.vn/cai-bat-tay-lich-su-cua-apple-va-intel-post1663094.html