Intel has been searching for a new CEO since Brian Krzanich resigned nearly seven months ago, and Axios now reports that the chipmaker's list of candidates includes Johny Srouji, Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies at Apple.

Srouji joined Apple in 2008 to lead development of the A4 chip, the first Apple-designed system-on-a-chip in the iPhone 4, and now oversees custom silicon and hardware technologies including batteries, application processors, storage controllers, sensors silicon, and other chipsets across Apple's entire product line.

It's unclear if Srouji is interested in leading Intel, where he worked between 1990 and 2005 in both his native Israel and the United States, according to his LinkedIn profile. Srouji also worked at IBM between 2005 and 2008.

Apple's custom A-series chips lead the mobile industry in terms of performance, so losing Srouji would certainly be a major blow for the iPhone maker, although the company obviously has a larger team of engineers working on the silicon. Back in 2017, Srouji said his team was already working on chips for 2020.

Apple is rumored to use an Intel wireless chip in its first 5G-capable iPhone in 2020.