Tim Cook says iPhone prices will rise. Trump says Apple will make US chips with Intel

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN

New York (CNN) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that Intel has struck a deal with Apple to start producing computer chips in the United States.

“I decided to help Intel because we need to design and build our Chips right here in America,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Truth Social.

Shares of Intel (INTC) spiked more than 9% in premarket trading. The company declined to comment.

The move will help Apple diversify its manufacturing base. The California-based company largely relies on Taiwan to manufacture the processors that power its iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers.

Trump’s announcement comes after Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal this week that price hikes on its products are “unavoidable” because of the rising costs of memory and storage chips sparked by the AI boom.

“We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable,” Cook told the newspaper.

The Trump administration has previously helped Intel, making an $8.9 billion investment in Intel’s stock last August. The government took a roughly 10% stake in the company to help its ongoing efforts to expand research and manufacturing facilities in the US, while ensuring access to a domestic advanced-chip supply chain for national security purposes.

The agreement was part of an effort to help boost semiconductor manufacturing in the US and cement the country’s place as a leader in the global chipmaking industry, a key priority of Trump’s second term.

In Thursday’s post, Trump wondered if he underpaid for the stake.

“They were worth around 100 Billion Dollars when we made our offer. Now they are worth over 600 BILLION DOLLARS! Nine months, and they’ve increased in value over HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS. America’s stake is now over 60 Billion Dollars,” he wrote.

Apple didn’t immediately return CNN’s request for comment.

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