The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Intel will start fabricating chips for Apple, the most consequential customer win the foundry business has landed since Pat Gelsinger pivoted the company toward third-party manufacturing. Intel popped 14% Friday and added another 5% Monday on the back of it. This is the deal that validates the entire IDM 2.0 strategy. Apple has been TSMC's biggest customer for years, so even a partial migration of advanced node production would shake up the foundry pecking order.
Nvidia put $5B into Intel earlier this year and that's starting to look prescient. The supply chain story for US-made advanced silicon just got real.