Intel to make chips for Altera

Intel has agreed to make chips on behalf of Altera, a significant step towards opening its prized manufacturing technology to customers on a larger scale, potentially including Apple.

Sharing its manufacturing plants to strategic customers could help the world’s top chipmaker offset the growing costs of developing new technology and help keep the plants running near capacity as Intel’s traditional PC business loses steam.

Intel will make Altera’s programmable chips using its upcoming 14 nanometer trigate transistor technology, the most notable agreement of its kind announced so far by the chipmaker.