Semiconductor maker has been winning support from other tech companies following the deal that gave the U.S. government 10% stake
Intel INTC 8.87% Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan has been hustling to secure investments and customer commitments needed for the chipmaker’s comeback.
Among the companies Intel has approached about investments or manufacturing partnerships are Apple AAPL 1.81% and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing 2330 -1.52%, according to people familiar with the matter.
Those efforts were already under way before President Trump showed an interest in the company last month, but have gone into overdrive since the U.S. took a 10% stake in it, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The Trump administration has been using its influence to help revive Intel’s sagging fortunes. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and others in the administration have for months been urging tech companies to work more closely with Intel—which was for long the world’s largest semiconductor firm before losing its lead to TSMC and others.
The procession of headlines has already kindled a growing sense among investors and tech-world peers that Intel could shed its has-been status and return to relevance, buoyed by widespread desire for a more diversified and robust chip supply. Intel shares rose 8.9% Thursday, closing at their highest level in more than a year. But questions linger around whether it can meet the production and performance benchmarks customers demand for the most advanced chips, and how a long-contemplated split-off of its manufacturing operation would be best achieved.
Japan’s SoftBank made a $2 billion investment in Intel as its discussions with the Trump administration were under way in August. Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, followed that up with a $5 billion investment earlier this month, a deal that also includes a provision for Intel to design new hardware to integrate with Nvidia’s chips.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have both been demonstrative in their support of the administration’s technology agenda, which includes building up domestic semiconductor-manufacturing capacity and supercharging the construction of data centers needed by the artificial-intelligence industry.
Bloomberg earlier reported on Intel’s overtures to Apple. Tan earlier in the year met with Apple’s Tim Cook and has also spoken to C.C. Wei, his counterpart at TSMC, about a partnership or joint venture, according to people familiar with the matter.
Even after the investments, Intel, which lost $3.7 billion in the first half of 2025, is seen as requiring additional capital. It also needs customers, both to buy the chips it makes and to manufacture their own chips in its fabrication facilities.
Earlier in the year Intel put plans to do significant capital raising on hold, The Wall Street Journal reported in August. The company could revive those efforts before the end of the year, people familiar with the matter said, potentially attracting private-equity and other institutional investors.
Intel has long been under pressure from shareholders and analysts to spin out the fabrication side of its business and focus on chip design, but Tan has said he sees it as vital to U.S. national security. Prior to Tan’s hiring as CEO in March, Intel’s board chairman, Frank Yeary, pushed for the company to divest its fabrication business. The company has said it is building a firewall between its design and fabrication businesses to encourage customers that design their own chips to entrust Intel with making them.
Apple for many years used Intel chips as the central processing units in its Mac computers, but moved to chips it designs itself a few years ago. IPhones use Apple-designed chips as well.
