Intel CEO expands desire to make silicon chips from Apple, making it “competitive fun” with Apple

In an interview with Yahoo Finance today, Intel’s newly appointed CEO Pat Gelsinger said the ongoing competition between his company and Apple is “fun,” while also saying he hopes to make up for it with technology giant Cupertino.

Over the next two years, Apple will make the transition from its Mac line of Intel processors to its own Apple silicon chips. Apple is already well on its way to the transition, as it has launched three Macs based on its M1 SoC. Intel in response last week launched a marketing campaign to label Macs and ‌M1‌ as inferior to Intel processors.

Despite the rain of attacks, Gelsinger has indicated that he hopes to have Apple as a future customer. In his interview with Yahoo Finance, Gelsinger said Apple relies too much on its current supplier, TSMC, to make Apple silicon and that Intel wants to offer its own services.

Apple is a customer and I hope to make it a big casting customer because today it is totally dependent on Taiwan Semiconductor. We also want to present you with fantastic options to take advantage of our casting services, just as we work with Qualcomm and Microsoft to take advantage of our casting. We will offer great technology, some things that cannot be done anywhere else in the world.

Gelsinger attributed the recent tense competition with Apple to the fact that there is still room for innovation in the industry and the bonus that PC demand is the highest it has been in over a decade. Gelsinger went on to say that there is “competitive fun with Apple and the Mac ecosystem.”

So obviously you’ve seen some of the competitive energies [in chipmaking] pick it up because there are so many new things to do and we haven’t seen PC demand at this level for a decade and a half. The world needs more, and there is competitive fun with Apple and the Mac ecosystem.

As part of its anti-silicon marketing campaign, Intel recently hired former “I’m a Mac” actor Justin Long to star in a series of ads comparing MacM1‌ Macs to Intel-powered laptops. In addition, Intel has taken to Twitter for the campaign and created its own website to compare Mac ‌M1‌ with PC.