Steve Jobs Had Apple Ready for Intel Before Intel Saw It Coming
While pressing Intel for smaller, less power-hungry chips, he was preparing Apple to one day go without them.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg · Former Intel CEO on What Went Wrong, What's Next + Lovable CEO on the Real Promise of Vibe CodingPat Gelsinger, the longtime Intel executive who later became its chief executive, recalled sitting down with Steve Jobs, the Apple chief, to discuss moving Mac computers to Intel chips. Intel had the experts in compilers and operating systems, the basic tools that let big software run on new hardware, so Gelsinger offered to help Apple move its Mac system off the rival family of chips it had used before.
Gelsinger recalled Jobs brushing the offer aside. "I've been working on that for the last four releases," Jobs said, meaning Apple had already prepared its core software to run on Intel-style chips. Gelsinger said he was shocked.
The exchange shows how Jobs bought from Intel while quietly getting ready to live without it. He kept pressing his supplier for better chips, and he was building an alternative inside Apple at the same time.
Apple had become a demanding Intel customer after it adopted Intel's Centrino laptop chips, constantly pushing for smaller chips that used less power. When Jobs grew unsure that Intel would stay far enough ahead, he did not make a loud break. He bought a tiny chip design firm called P.A. Semi, plus a few other small companies, and set them to making small chips inside Apple. Those first efforts were not a big deal, and they slowly grew more ambitious. Jobs was "a master of this," Gelsinger said, starting with "small efforts to build core competence inside the company."
The logic, as Gelsinger described it, was control. Jobs concluded he could no longer rely on Intel to stay that far ahead of the industry, and he thought he could do better by designing the hardware and the software together, instead of relying on a chip tuned mainly for Windows rather than for Apple's own system. He never framed it as Intel failing him, Gelsinger said. As Gelsinger recalled Jobs's view, "No, I can supply myself better."
Gelsinger, who had walked in ready to lend Intel's software muscle, walked out realizing Jobs had already done the job himself.
Questions people ask
Did Apple actually switch to Intel after that conversation?
Yes. Apple announced the move in 2005 and sold its first Intel-based Macs in 2006. The switch let Macs run faster while using less battery, and it lasted about 14 years until Apple started moving Macs to its own chips in 2020.
What was P.A. Semi?
P.A. Semi was a small California firm that designed low-power processors. Apple bought it in 2008 for $278 million, kept its engineers, and used that team as the seed for its in-house chip group, which later made the A-series chips for iPhones and the M-series chips for Macs.
Did Apple eventually leave Intel?
Yes. Starting in 2020, Apple replaced Intel processors in Macs with its own M1, M2, and later chips. Those chips combined the central processor, graphics, and memory in one package, which improved battery life and let Apple tune the hardware for its own software.