Apple and Broadcom extend chip partnership to 2031
Broadcom and Apple have once again extended their long-term technology collaboration, this time into 2031.
Reuters reports that Broadcom will continue to develop and supply custom ASIC silicon products for use in Apple’s devices. Apple is one of Broadcom’s largest customers, accounting for c.20% of its revenue.
The company will likely continue to make wireless connectivity and radio frequency components for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and other networking semiconductors.
Please subscribe to the human-curated daily Apple news summary on Substack
This may come to mean the company is also contributing to Apple’s own silicon development, such as to its C1, C1X and future C2 modems. The latter components are made on Apple’s behalf by TSMC.
As the two companies already work together on 5G radio frequency components for use in the US market, I think the arrangement may see component supplies at a micro-level for packaging within future Apple silicon designs.
The server thing
A major addition to this expansion involves custom ASIC silicon critical for artificial intelligence infrastructure. Reports indicate Apple plans to integrate Broadcom technology into its own proprietary AI server chips to power cloud-based Apple Intelligence.
That’s a smart move given how good Broadcom is at tailoring designs to deliver high performance at low energy requirements – I imagine this means Apple’s fleet of servers won’t be reliant on expensive third party GPUs.
You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky, LinkedIn, Mastodon and subscribe to The Core.
