Broadcom

Apple locked in one of its most important chip suppliers for years to come.

Broadcom revealed in a securities filing that it has extended its longstanding technology partnership with Apple through 2031. The companies signed new multi-year agreements under which Broadcom will develop and supply custom chips for use in future generations of Apple products.

The deal is valued at over $30 billion, will lead to the production of more than 15 billion U.S.-made chips.

“Apple and Broadcom have a long history together, and this new phase of our partnership further accelerates our commitment to American manufacturing and innovation,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in a statement.

The California Institute of Technology got what it wanted out of a years-long patent-infringement lawsuit against Broadcom and (peripherally) Apple. Caltech filed paperwork in a California court dismissing its case.

It’s not clear at this point whether or how much Broadcom and Apple paid the university as part of a settlement. It could be hundreds of millions, though.

Apple said Tuesday it struck a “new multiyear, multibillion-dollar agreement” with technology manufacturer Broadcom to develop 5G radio frequency components in the United States.

“We’re thrilled to make commitments that harness the ingenuity, creativity and innovative spirit of American manufacturing,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook.

“All of Apple’s products depend on technology engineered and built here in the United States, and we’ll continue to deepen our investments in the U.S. economy because we have an unshakable belief in America’s future,” he added.

Apple’s drawn-out effort to make its own 5G modem will reportedly begin to bear fruit in 2024. This will replace ones now sourced from Qualcomm.

And the iPhone-maker is also working to produce other wireless chips it currently gets from Broadcom.

Apple is reportedly hiring at a new office in Irvine, California, where the company will make 5G modems and other wireless chips for future devices.

It’s the latest move by Apple to expand the number of critical components for its products that it produces in-house.

Apple is being forced to cut iPhone 13 orders by as many as 10 million units due to ongoing chip shortages, according to a new report. Cupertino had planned to produce 90 million handsets before the end of the year.

It is now telling partners that the final figure will be lower as partners Broadcom and Texas Instruments — which supply parts related to iPhone’s wireless connectivity and display — struggle to deliver enough components.

The CEO of chipmaker Broadcom said on Thursday an unnamed “North American mobile phone customer” won‘t be introducing a “next-generation phone” in the third quarter of this year, as it normally does. The release will occur in the fourth quarter instead.

This statement from Hock Tan is being widely interpreted to mean this iPhone component supplier doesn’t expect the next iOS handset to debut in September, the usual month.

Security researchers discovered a critical flaw in Wi-Fi chips made by Broadcom and Cypress Semiconductor that were used in Apple devices.

The discovery was presented at the RSA security conference in San Francisco this morning, revealing that billions of devices could have been affected. Attackers could use the vulnerability to decrypt private data sent over the air. Most manufacturers have already released a patch to fix the issue, but it’s unclear how many of the devices have been updated.

The following Apple devices were affected:

Apple has been ordered by a California jury to pay $837.7 million in damages for breaching Wi-Fi technology patents owned by the California Institute of Technology. 

Apple says it plans to appeal the verdict.

Chipmaker Broadcom has inked two multi-year deals with Apple to sell it some $15 billion in wireless components for its iPhone product line, the company announced in an SEC filing on Thursday.

The announcement did not specify which components Broadcom would provide to the iPhone maker. The deals apply to “Apple products launched during the three and a half year period beginning in January 2020,” the chipmaker said.

Apple might be in the market to acquire the radio-frequency chip division from one of its biggest parts suppliers.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Broadcom Inc is working with Credit Suisse to find a possible buyer of its RF wireless-chip unit in an effort to diversify its business and move more toward software. Although the names of companies potentially interested in the division haven’t been named, Apple observers are quickly pointing out that the iPhone-maker scooping it up makes the most sense.

Google has suspended its business with Huawei and revoked its Android license following a U.S. crackdown on Chinese technology companies.

It’s a massive blow for the world’s third-biggest smartphone-maker — and it’s not the only one it received this weekend. Intel, Qualcomm, and other chip manufacturers have also halted their partnerships with the company.

Some of the iPhone 8’s biggest new features could be disabled when the handset makes its debut this September.

A new report claims Apple is struggling to iron out software issues that are rendering wireless charging and another major feature unusable for now.

Chip orders reveal demand for the next-gen iPhones is set to exceed 50 million units during the second half of 2017, and hit a total of 220 million to 230 million units, according to a new report.

The new handsets are likely to be Apple’s biggest iPhone refresh since 2014’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus-era devices, and promise to boast major new features. And it seems Apple’s willing to bank on that leading to massive demand!

iPhone-assembler Foxconn may be about to get some help from none other than Apple in its quest to buy Toshiba’s chipmaking business.

Apple is reportedly considering whether to make a huge multi-billion dollar investment in the world’s second-largest memory chip maker. If the deal goes through, it would give Foxconn and Apple a major advantage over other smartphone manufacturers.

Apple’s most important manufacturing parter is getting ready to make a huge investment that could make it one of the world’s biggest chipmakers.

The Japanese government is hoping Toshiba will sell itself to a domestic company, but Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industries (aka Foxconn) is preparing to make a huge offer for the company that could shake up the tech world.

The super-fast WiFi on your iPhone may be the result of patent violations, according to a new lawsuit filed by the California Institute of Technology that claims Apple violated four of its patents.

HomeKit just gained a powerful new partner: Communication firm Broadcom announced yesterday that its WICED (“Wireless Internet Connectivity for Embedded Devices”) software now offers full support with Apple’s connected-accessory framework.

WICED is the first software development kit to meet HomeKit’s standards for Wi-fi and Bluetooth Smart, which gives it a head start over other companies looking to get in on Apple’s platform.

Intel lost the opportunity to power the iPhone, but the company is hard at work to make sure they don’t get completely shut out of mobile hardware, and to do so they’re hiring some old Apple talent.

To lead the charge in its plans to build “smart devices” Intel has hired former Apple Vice President, Mike Bell, to head up Intel’s new Smart Devices Unit.

After redesigning nearly every product under their roof in 2012, Apple’s probably not going to be redesigning the Mac in 2013. There’s still reason to get excited about updated Mac models, though, as Apple’s sure to stuff them with great new hardware features.

If super-fast Internet speeds make your fingers tingle with anticipation, then you’ll be happy to learn that a new report claims Apple will be including a new chipset this year that will bring 802.11ac networking capabilities to the Mac.

Just days after pulling apart the fifth-generation iPod touch, iFixit have taken their tools to the new, seventh-generation iPod nano. This model marks another major change to the iPod nano lineup; it’s no longer a tiny device you can wear on your rest, but instead it takes a longer form much like the fourth- and fifth-generation devices.

iFixit has given this model a reparability score of 5 out of 10, which means that like the rest of Apple’s new iOS devices, this one isn’t to get into, or easy to repair. Here are some other interesting things the teardown uncovered.

How do we know the new iPod touch began shipping yesterday? Because iFixit’s gone and torn it apart already. That’s right, the fifth-generation device has received its customary teardown, revealing its whopping new battery, and all of its new components. iFixit have awarded the iPod touch a repairability score of 3 out of 10, meaning it’s not at all easy to fix.