Apple Inc is hiring engineers for a new office in southern California to develop wireless chips that could eventually replace components supplied by Broadcom Inc and Skyworks Solutions Inc.
The company is seeking a few dozen people to develop wireless chips in Irvine, where Broadcom, Skyworks and other companies have offices. Recent job listings show that Apple wants employees with experience in modem chips and other wireless semiconductors.
It is part of a broader strategy of expanding satellite offices, letting the tech giant target engineering hotbeds and attract employees who might not want to work at its home base in Silicon Valley. The approach has also helped Apple further its goal of making more of its own components.
Photo: Reuters
Shares of wireless-chip makers slid on Thursday after Bloomberg reported on the effort.
Skyworks fell as much as 11 percent, marking its biggest intraday plunge since March last year. Broadcom and Qualcomm Inc declined more than 4 percent each.
Apple’s interest in hiring talent related to a particular technology is usually bad news for the existing providers.
The company has increasingly touted the importance of its in-house chip designs in making its products stand out. Intel Corp, the industry’s biggest company, has joined growing a list of chipmakers that have lost their grip on Apple products.
In 2018, Apple started recruiting engineers in San Diego, home of Qualcomm. Two years later, Apple chip chief Johny Srouji told employees that the company is developing its own cellular modem to eventually replace Qualcomm’s offerings.
The Irvine expansion is in its early stages, and Apple plans to increase its presence gradually. The company is also still working out its companywide return-to-office plans. On Wednesday, Apple scrapped its Feb. 1 deadline for corporate employees to go back to in-person work.
However, staffing up in Irvine is the latest sign Apple is bringing more technology in-house. Engineers are to work on wireless radios, radio-frequency integrated circuits and a wireless system-on-a-chip (SoC).
They are also to develop semiconductors for connecting to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Those are all components currently provided to Apple by Broadcom, Skyworks and Qualcomm.
The effort builds on Apple’s earlier work in wireless chips. The AirPods and Apple Watch already include custom parts that let them pair with devices, and Apple’s latest iPhones include U1 ultra-wideband chips for more accurately pinpointing their location, and connecting with the AirTag accessory and other products.
“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.”
Apple, and particularly the iPhone, is a key source of revenue for chipmakers. Early last year, Apple and Broadcom reached a US$15 billion supply agreement for wireless components that ends in 2023.
Apple accounts for about 20 percent of Broadcom’s sales, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Skyworks is even more dependent on Apple, which makes up nearly 60 percent of its revenue, the data showed.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
RSS