Under the multi-year deal, Broadcom will develop 5G radio
frequency components with Apple that will be designed and built in several U.S.
facilities, including Fort Collins, Colorado, where Broadcom has a major
factory, Apple said.
Broadcom were up 2.2 percent after the announcement, hitting
a record high. The chipmaker is already a major supplier of wireless components
to Apple, with about one fifth of its revenue coming from the iPhone maker in
its two most recent fiscal year.
Apple has been steadily diversifying its supply chains,
building more products in India and Vietnam and saying that it will source
chips from a new Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing plant under construction in
Arizona.
The two companies did not disclose the size of the deal,
with Broadcom saying only that the new agreements require it to allocate Apple
"sufficient manufacturing capacity and other resources to make these
products."
Broadcom and Apple previously had a three-year, $15 billion
(roughly Rs. 1,24,100 crore) agreement that Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon said
was set to expire in June. He said the development was positive for Broadcom,
despite the fact that the two firms did not give a time frame for how long the
work will last.
"It's good that it removes that overhang," Rasgon
said. "Broadcom has existed over the years with a number of these
long-term agreements with Apple. Sometimes they have them and sometimes they
don't."
Apple said it will tap Broadcom for what are known as film
bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) chips. The FBAR chips are part of a
radio-frequency system that helps iPhones and other Apple devices connect to
mobile data networks.
“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," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.
Apple said it currently supports more than 1,100 jobs in
Broadcom's Fort Collins FBAR filter manufacturing facility. © Reuters