Per Apple’s activity on the job listing boards, Apple is creating a new office that will focus on wireless chip production, thus bringing more of its chip development in-house.
Apple is hiring a few dozen engineers for an office in Southern California to develop components that may eventually replace parts that are currently sourced from companies like Broadcom, Skyworks, and Qualcomm. The office is located in Irvine, California, which is close to Los Angeles and where major chip makers are located.
The company is apparently seeking employees with expertise in modem chips as well as wireless semiconductors. The facility is said to be geared towards work on wireless radios, radio-frequency integrated semiconductors, and semiconductors for connecting to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
“Apple’s growing wireless silicon development team is developing the next generation of wireless silicon!” one job listing says. Another says employees will “be at the center of a wireless SoC design group with a critical impact on getting Apple’s state-of-the-art wireless connectivity solutions into hundreds of millions of products.”
As of 2020, Apple signed a three and a half year deal with Broadcom. Under the terms of the deal, Broadcom supplies Apple with “range of specified high-performance wireless components and modules.”
Once the contract expires, Apple will no longer need to use Broadcom components and can instead rely on its own components.
Apple is said to be fairly far along with the development of its own 5G modem chips, and could also be in a position to stop sourcing 5G chips from Qualcomm.
Current rumors suggest that Apple’s modem chips will be ready for use in the 2023 iPhone models, so Apple will continue to use Qualcomm chips for the iPhone 14 lineup.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via MacRumors and Bloomberg News