Intel’s new CEO Pat Gelsinger has said that the competition with Apple and its Mac ecosystem is “fun.” Gelsinger comments come two weeks after Intel launched an anti-Apple campaign in which it highlighted how Intel-based PCs are better than M1 Macs.

As a part of its new business strategy, Intel will be setting up a foundry business, with Gelsinger making it clear that Intel will be vying for Apple’s business.

“So obviously you’ve seen some of the competitive energies [in chipmaking] resume because there’s a lot of great innovation to be done, and we haven’t seen PC demand at this level for a decade and a half. The world needs more of that, and there is competitive fun going on with Apple and the Mac ecosystem,” Gelsinger said.

Apple is not likely to go back to Intel CPUs for its Macs now. However, Intel is still hoping to win Apple as a customer for its foundry business in the future. Gelsinger says that he hopes to make Apple “a big foundry customer,” especially since right now Apple is totally dependent on TSMC for its chip fabrication.

Despite being the CPU market leader for over the last decade, Intel has struggled to innovate with its chips for almost half a decade now. They have become inefficient and power-hungry and have not brought about any major leap in single-core performance in a few years now. The company has also been struggling with its 7nm fabrication node, which has now been delayed by over three years. Coupled with security issues, Apple ditched Intel CPUs and switched to Apple Silicon inside Macs, bringing a massive leap in performance and battery life.