Following a practically lost decade, Intel has had a busy few months, which culminated in investments by Nvidia and the US government. Now, the chipmaker is looking at Apple to help continue its comeback. Here are the details.

As reported by Bloomberg, Intel has been trying to secure an investment from Apple as part of its comeback strategy.

The report says that the companies “ have discussed how to work more closely together,” although no agreement is in sight.

From the report:

• Intel Corp. has approached Apple Inc. about securing an investment in the ailing chipmaker, according to people familiar with the matter, part of efforts to bolster a business that’s now partially owned by the US government.
  
• Apple and Intel also have discussed how to work more closely together, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the deliberations are private. The talks have been early-stage and may not lead to an agreement, the people said.

In the last few weeks, Intel has secured a $5 billion investment from Nvidia, which followed a very public spat between President Trump and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, that began with Trump calling for Tan’s ouster, and ended with the US government taking a 10% stake in the company.

When asked about the deal by Bloomberg, neither Apple nor Intel had any comments, but stockholders were quick to react, with Intel’s stock seeing a 6% bump, while Apple saw a 1% dip.

A reunion for the ages?

It is not immediately clear how an Intel-Apple agreement would benefit Apple, the initial read is that Intel could possibly package the company’s chips, in case the investment does include a rekindling of the ties between the two companies.

An Intel investment could also benefit Apple’s efforts to appease the US government and show more commitment to domestic initiatives, which currently has the $600 billion American Manufacturing Program as its centerpiece.

It would also mark a significant reunion, as for many years, Apple relied on Intel as its processor supplier, mainly for Macs. However, following long delays and changes in Intel’s plans that required Apple to hold off on more frequent Mac updates, Apple decided to invest in its own chips, complete with a full architecture switch from x86 to ARM.

Source: 9to5mac