May 8, 2026
Exes, chips, and chaos
Apple, Intel have reached preliminary chip-making deal
Apple runs back to Intel and the comments are already yelling “wait, why?”
TLDR: Intel and Apple are reportedly teaming up so Intel can make some chips for Apple devices, a big win for Intel and for U.S. manufacturing plans. Commenters, though, are stuck on the breakup lore: if Apple left Intel for falling behind, why is this reunion happening now?
Apple may be inching toward a surprise reunion with Intel, and the internet’s first reaction was basically: didn’t we break up for a reason? According to the Reuters report, Intel has reached a preliminary deal to make some chips for future Apple devices, with Washington reportedly helping push the two giants together. For Intel, this could mean a much-needed image boost and a big, reliable customer. For Apple, it’s about not putting all its chip-making eggs in one basket while demand piles up.
But the comment section was far more interested in the emotional baggage. One of the strongest reactions came from people who remembered Apple’s very public move away from Intel in its Mac computers. "Wasn’t the whole Apple Silicon thing about Intel being unable to keep up?" asked one commenter, summing up the thread’s main side-eye. In other words: if Apple left because Intel was too slow before, why come back now?
Then came the wishful nostalgia. One user immediately jumped to Bootcamp—Apple’s old feature that let Macs run Windows—hoping this odd corporate reunion might somehow bring it back. Another dropped a drive-by joke, calling the news "another triumph for x86," which is the kind of niche victory lap that comment sections live for. And of course, no internet drama is complete without someone simply posting "Paywall", the universal online way of saying, I have thoughts, but first I need the article to stop asking for money.
Key Points
- •Reuters reported, citing the Wall Street Journal, that Intel and Apple have reached a preliminary deal for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices.
- •The companies were reportedly in intensive talks for more than a year and finalized a formal agreement in recent months.
- •The reported deal could strengthen Intel’s contract manufacturing business and support U.S. efforts to expand domestic semiconductor production.
- •For Apple, the arrangement could diversify manufacturing capacity beyond heavy reliance on TSMC, whose advanced lines face strong demand from Nvidia and AMD.
- •It remains unclear which Apple products would use Intel-made chips, and both companies declined to comment.