Apple is taking a serious step towards expanding its horizons on the 5G wireless frontier. It surprised us today with its announcement of an investment of over a billion dollars for a new state-of-the-art chip design facility in Munich, Germany.
The chosen location for expansion is a logical decision for Apple, as Munich already houses its largest development center in Europe—boasting 1500 engineers from 40 different countries. The facility will be 100% powered by reneweable energy (a tradition Apple began in 2014), and is set to become Europe's biggest development site for mobile wireless semiconductors and software.
I couldn't be more curious about what our engineering teams in Munich will discover - from exploring new possibilities in 5G technology to a new generation of technologies that will enable even more performance, speed and connectivity. —Tim Cook
In fact, this may be the first step to Apple's plan to phase away from buying Qualcomm modem chips by finally developing their own modems. They have been open about their desire to complete their internal processing ecosystem, having already designed their own in-house A14 SoC (system-on-a-chip)—which houses all of Apple smartphones' microchips except for the modem.
The teams are [working on] the development, integration and optimization of radio modems for Apple products.
The new facility will cover over 300,000 square feet and is set to open in late 2022. Its green-themed design will reflect Munich's values of "tradition, humanity, and innovation" and sources local materials. According to Apple, this guarantees it a Gold certification in LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) by launch day.
Recommended Stories
Loading Comments...
COMMENT
All comments need to comply with our
Community Guidelines
Phonearena comments rules
A discussion is a place, where people can voice their opinion, no matter if it
is positive, neutral or negative. However, when posting, one must stay true to the topic, and not just share some
random thoughts, which are not directly related to the matter.
Things that are NOT allowed:
Off-topic talk - you must stick to the subject of discussion
Offensive, hate speech - if you want to say something, say it politely
Spam/Advertisements - these posts are deleted
Multiple accounts - one person can have only one account
Impersonations and offensive nicknames - these accounts get banned
Moderation is done by humans. We try to be as objective as possible and moderate with zero bias. If you think a
post should be moderated - please, report it.
Have a question about the rules or why you have been moderated/limited/banned? Please,
contact us.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: