Apple could announce plans as soon as Monday to replace Intel processors in Macs with chips that it designed itself.
OAKLAND, Calif. — Silicon Valley is bracing for a long-expected breakup of Apple and Intel, signaling both the end of one of the tech industry’s most influential partnerships and Apple’s determination to take more control of how its products are built.
Apple has been working for years on designing chips to replace the Intel microprocessors used in Mac computers, according to five people with knowledge of the effort who weren’t authorized to speak about it. They say that Apple could announce its plans as soon as a company conference for developers on Monday, with computers based on the new chips set to start arriving next year.
Apple’s move is an indication of the growing power of the biggest tech companies to expand their capabilities and reduce their dependence on major partners that have provided them with services for years — even as smaller competitors and the global economy struggle because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Facebook, for example, is investing billions of dollars into one of Indonesia’s fastest-growing apps, a telecom giant in India and an undersea fiber-optic cable encircling Africa. Amazon has built out its own fleet of cargo planes and delivery trucks. And Google and Apple continue to buy upstarts to expand their empires.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the same partner Apple uses to build similar components it designs for iPhones and iPads, is expected to make the Mac chips in factories in Asia — an arrangement much like Apple’s use of Foxconn to assemble iPhones.
Intel and Apple declined to comment. Bloomberg previously reported on Apple’s plans.
Other big tech companies like Amazon and Google already design some of their own chips, both for performance and potential cost reasons. Some tasks, like artificial intelligence and rendering 3-D images, can be handled more efficiently on special-purpose circuitry rather than the general-purpose microprocessors that are Intel’s mainstay.
Since 2005, Apple has used in its Macs effectively the same Intel chips as most other PCs. Making its own processors would give Apple even more control over how Mac computers work. Apple has always designed the chips used in iPhones and iPads, adding features to customize designs licensed by Arm Ltd., a semiconductor firm owned by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. Apple’s forthcoming Mac chips are also expected to rely on Arm technology, improving compatibility with its mobile devices.
Apple has created a large chip-design team, building on the 2008 purchase of a 150-employee start-up called PA Semi.
