In Munich, engineers are developing future generations of Apple chips. In the eyes of CEO Cook, they are doing so well that he wants to intensify his work in the Bavarian capital. The tech company is doubling an already planned investment to two billion euros.
Apple will invest another billion euros in its European Center for Chip Design in Munich. This was announced by the Californian technology group in the Bavarian state capital. The iPhone group is thus increasing its investment commitment from 2021 to two billion euros. Munich is already Apple’s largest development location in Europe. The Apple developers in the Munich chip center deal with three main topics. 5G wireless technology, power-saving solutions for chips and so-called analog and mixed-signal solutions.
With the help of the results from Bavaria, Apple wants to make itself independent of supplies from the chip manufacturer Qualcomm, from which the iPhone manufacturer has previously obtained its radio chips for the fifth generation of mobile communications (5G). When it comes to “power management”, i.e. the particularly energy-saving systems, Apple customers are already using developments from Munich, for example in the MacBook Pro with the Apple M2 Pro and M2 Max chips.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said: “Our engineering teams in Munich are among the world’s most innovative, helping to develop new technologies that are at the heart of our products. Apple has been in Munich for more than 40 years and we’re looking forward to ours more than ever future here.” In addition to the new location on Seidlstrasse, the Apple teams will move into several additional rooms for research and development on the two adjacent streets, Denisstrasse and Marsstrasse, as part of the expansion of the European Center for Chip Design. The three new locations are directly opposite Apple’s recently opened research and development facility on Karlstrasse and are intended to form a “hub for innovation” in the heart of Munich.
During his recent visit to Munich for the Oktoberfest, Cook justified his involvement in Munich with the quality of the employees. “We’re here for the people,” Cook said. Apple has found that the universities in the Munich area are excellent. In addition, there are many qualified workers in the region. But Munich also has in common with Silicon Valley in California that people like living there. It is therefore easy to attract employees from other countries to work in Munich. Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer, said: “The expansion of our European Center for Chip Design will enable even closer collaboration between our more than 2,000 engineers in Bavaria who are working on pioneering innovations such as proprietary chip designs, power management and future wireless technologies.”
