Threat to Intel, Samsung
Apple is aiming for in-house semiconductor chip procurement and the effort is going well, according to Bloomberg on January 29 (local time).
This has to do with the recent news that chips designed by Intel, Arm Holdings and AMD are vulnerable to hacking. Piper Jaffray Securities senior analyst Mike Olsen pointed out that in-house chip design is advantageous in terms of component procurement cost, R&D control and trade secret protection.
Apple is planning to design semiconductor chips on its own while entrusting production to companies like TSMC. At present, Apple is designing chips and testing the production of the chips in Herzliya, Israel as well as Cupertino, California.
In the meantime, it is said that the new iPhone to make its debut this year will come with modems produced by Intel and MediaTek instead of Qualcomm. Last year, Apple’s smart watch incorporated its W2 chip that has a Bluetooth function. In addition, iPhone 8 and iPhone X have come with an AI chip and a dedicated GPU, respectively. The new iPad scheduled to be released this autumn is likely to adopt a GPU and an AI chip designed by none other than Apple itself, too.
According to industry sources, Apple is expected to become capable of designing an entire CPU on its own in the near future, and then Intel will lose its fifth-largest client.