According to Semafor, Intel Foundry Services is pushing to land AMD orders on its upcoming 18A and 14A nodes. The deal would give Chipzilla’s foundry push some much-needed credibility, as it is still desperate for external customers beyond political cheerleaders.

This chatter comes after months of momentum shifting in Intel’s favour. The Trump administration, SoftBank and Nvidia have circled the outfit, with pressure from Washington ensuring that any deal with Intel means bonus points with the US government. For AMD, teaming up with Intel might not just be about wafers but about staying on the right side of politics.

It wouldn’t be the first time the two outfits shared silicon. In 2018, Intel slapped AMD’s Radeon RX Vega GPU chiplets onto its Kaby Lake architecture for the Kaby Lake-G project. The collaboration fizzled but proved the two can work together when the moon is in the correct phase and the planets align correctly.

Industry watchers speculate that AMD might be tempted to shift some EPYC CPU production onto Intel’s 18A process, even though it has already pencilled in TSMC’s N2 node.

The whole rumour hinges on whether Intel can actually deliver 18A with decent yields, power, performance and area. If Chipzilla bungles the launch, no one will bite. If it gets it right, TSMC’s political headaches could drive big names like AMD, Nvidia and even Apple to give Intel Foundry Services a serious look.