Source: The Wall Street Journal (paywall)
The Trump administration is directly intervening in chipmaker decisions—leveraging Apple's supply chain choices to prop up Intel's manufacturing ambitions—marking a sharp break from hands-off tech policy norms. Semiconductor capacity has become a core national security and political priority, with the government willing to apply pressure across major tech firms rather than relying on market forces or subsidy incentives alone. If Apple is forced to qualify Intel chips for production, it will reshape foundational supply relationships and test whether industrial policy can override established vendor relationships without creating competitive or reliability costs for companies caught in the middle.