Intel to Manufacture 64-bit ARM Chips Starting 2014

Intel partner Altera has announced that the world’s largest semiconductor chip company will start manufacturing 64-bit ARM chips starting 2014, Forbes reports. The news comes as a surprise move in Intel’s push to break ARM’s position in the mobile market.

“It’s huge. Imagine ARM’s most powerful and technologically advanced 64-bits processor built on Intel’s leading-edge fabs. A duo that will be hard to beat,” explains Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64.

“Intel will build Apple’s AAPL +1.84% A7, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon or the Nvidia Tegra for the right price. Now, the question is, are they ready to pay that premium and feed their direct competitor, except for Apple. But that would actually make business sense for everyone,” adds Brookwood.

It remains to be seen whether Apple is interested in moving a portion of its A-series chips to Intel. Earlier this year, it was reported that the Cupertino company had signed a deal with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to supply its A-series chips, starting 2014.

The long-rumoured partnership doesn’t mean that rival Samsung has been cut from the list of Apple suppliers as a chip manufacturer, though, as the South Korean company will continue to supply A-series chips in 2015. Also, Samsung remains involved in the manufacturing process of the A8 chip, with TSMC being in charge of supplying the majority of the A-series chips that power iDevices.