Apple (US:APPL) is to make its own chips for its flagship Mac computers, moving away from current supplier Intel (US:INTC) within two years. The tech giant called the transition over to “Apple silicon” the “biggest leap ever for the Mac”. Chief executive Tim Cook said at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference that the company plans to ship the first Mac with said silicon by the end of 2020.
Apple’s move to use its own silicon marks a divergence from other computer developers such as Dell (US:DELL), which continue to rely on Intel for the processors that drive their devices. The group’s new chip will be powered by Cambridge-based semiconductor manufacturer Arm Holdings, which is owned by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimated that the switch to Arm-based processors could create annual savings of around $2.7bn (£2.2bn) for Apple.
Intel’s share price nudged up 1 per cent on the news. Apple still plans to support and release new versions of its macOS operating system for Intel-based Macs for at least a few years, and it still has new Intel-based Macs in development. But the group has, ostensibly, been more or less squeezed out of the Apple supply chain after 15 years of supporting the Mac.
Meanwhile, Apple’s new processor could mean more business for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, which already sits in the supply chain of a number of Apple devices.
