President Donald Trump hinted that Apple may have some involvement in Intel during a short press interview on Tuesday in response to a question about Washington's own stake in the company. His comments imply that Cupertino has bought into the company, following in Nvidia’s footsteps after the White House took a 10% stake in the company, but there is a possibility they are erroneous.
The comment came after a reporter asked the President, “Intel stock is really high after you invested. Are you going to invest more in Intel?” Trump answered, “I like it, you know? Well, I don’t know about Intel, but I’ll invest more in other things. As you know, Intel came to see me; they needed help. And I said I’ll help you, but I want 10% of your company to go to the United States of America.” Trump also added later, “As soon as we went in, Apple went in, Nvidia went in, a lot of smart people went in — they followed us. So, yeah, we’re doing that deal.” [Emphasis added]
This statement has analysts and industry experts talking, as it’s seemingly a suggestion that Apple has reached an agreement with Intel regarding the latter’s overtures toward the former for a potential investment in the third quarter of 2025. Aside from that, we’ve seen clues in Apple and Broadcom job listings that both are looking for experts in Intel’s suite of EMIB packaging tech, as well as reports from sources that Apple has acquired the Intel 18A process design kit for its entry-level M-series chips.
However, without any official announcement from Intel or Apple, we can only speculate if this was an actual investment or if the President misspoke. After all, Intel would have to notify its shareholders if it sold a major amount of its stock to Apple (or any other company, for that matter).
Alternatively, it could be that what Trump meant by “Apple went in” is the company signing a contract with Intel to produce chips for them. This is actually a more plausible direction, especially given that it may be considering using 18A or even 14A for its future SOCs. But, then again, a major client like Apple, which would be expected to order at least 15 and 20 million units, should appear in Intel’s filings, which are due to come out in a couple of weeks.
A more straightforward explanation, though, is that Trump could have mistaken Apple for another company — SoftBank Group. The Japanese company announced in August 2025 that it will buy $2 billion of Intel shares — around the same time that the U.S. government bought into the ailing chipmaker. However, without an official statement from Apple or Intel, it remains unclear what the President meant by what he said. We’ve also reached out to Apple for comment, and we will have an update if they give a response.
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