Sept 25 (Reuters) - Chipmaker Intel has

approached Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company ( TSM )

about investments in manufacturing or partnerships, the Wall

Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with

the matter.

The development follows a Bloomberg report on Wednesday that

said Intel ( INTC ) was in talks with Apple ( AAPL ) about securing an

investment in the struggling chipmaker.

Intel's ( INTC ) efforts to get outside investment began before U.S.

President Donald Trump showed an interest in the company last

month, WSJ said, but have gone into overdrive since the U.S.

took a 10% stake in it.

Intel ( INTC ) declined to comment, while TSMC did not immediately

respond to Reuters requests for comments.

Last week, Nvidia ( NVDA ) announced it would invest $5

billion in Intel ( INTC ) for a roughly 4% stake in the company.

The chipmaker also got a $2 billion capital injection from

SoftBank Group in August.

Intel ( INTC ) CEO Lip-Bu Tan has been trying to bring in partners as

part of a turnaround at the ailing chipmaker.

Once the chip industry's flag bearer that claimed to put the

"silicon" in Silicon Valley, Intel ( INTC ) has struggled to compete in

the booming AI race, falling behind peers such as Nvidia ( NVDA ) and

Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ).

Intel ( INTC ) has invested billions of dollars in setting up a

contract manufacturing business that has struggled to compete

with TSMC and barely attracted external customers.

The two companies had discussed a preliminary agreement to

form a joint venture, with TSMC taking a 20% stake in the new

company, the Information had reported in April.