President Trump sparks pre-market Intel surge with Apple deal announcement

Intel shares jumped as much as 9% in premarket trading on Thursday after President Trump said on Truth Social that Apple has agreed to partner with the chipmaker to design and build chips inside the US.

The Santa Clara-based chipmaker’s stock spiked 9% before the opening bell on Thursday following President Trump’s announcement. The announcement by President Trump barely moved Apple stock, as it rose just 0.5% in premarket trading. 

President Trump says they decided to help Intel in exchange for equity

The President continued to brag about his mission to bring manufacturing back to US soil with the new deal. In this post, he wrote, “Apple has agreed to work with Intel to design and build its chips.”

Trump highlighted two previous achievements in this regard. The president pointed to the Intel-NVIDIA deal, in which NVIDIA agreed to build some of its advanced chip designs at Intel plants. 

President Trump also mentioned that he arranged for Elon Musk to commit to building TerraFab, which he claims will be the largest chip-manufacturing plant anywhere, developed together with Intel’s engineering team.

Last year, Washington had converted roughly $8.9 billion in CHIPS Act and Secure Enclave funding into a 9.9% equity position, buying in at $20.47 a share.

Trump claimed that stake has since grown from about $10 billion to more than $60 billion as Intel’s valuation crossed $600 billion, though independent calculations based on this week’s share price put the paper gain closer to $43 billion. 

One trader argued that landing Apple as a customer could roughly double Intel’s current annual revenue run rate and turn its long-struggling foundry arm into a real business, rather than an internal cost center.

Why Intel option is crucial for Apple

Apple has been heavily reliant on TSMC over the last decade for its chip strategy. However, with the current chip shortage driven by artificial intelligence, Apple needed to look elsewhere. TSMC’s arrangement with Apple was getting strained more and more, especially considering that Nvidia and AMD already soak up its most advanced production lines. 

In May last year, the WSJ reported that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement for Intel’s 18A node designed for the iPad Pro and the entry-level MacBook Air. The discussion had reportedly been going on for more than a year. 

Coincidentally, just a day before Trump’s post, the company said its next-generation 18A-P process had entered risk production, an important step toward full-scale manufacturing. The same product is to be used on some of Apple’s products.

However, both Apple and Intel are yet to confirm any details of the arrangement. No chip names, volumes, or contract terms have been disclosed. Right now, Trump’s post is still the only public word that this deal exists.

Intel’s stock is up more than 200% so far this year, a turnaround CEO Lip-Bu Tan has built on cost-cutting, new external customers, and a federal government that’s clearly willing to help.

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