Apple invests another billion in Munich chip center

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Apple store in Munich: iPhones are not only sold in the Bavarian state capital, Apple chips are also designed

Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa

Apple will invest another billion euros in its European Center for Chip Design in Munich.

The Californian technology group announced this on Thursday 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.

The aim is to become 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 and help to develop new technologies that form the heart of our products.

Apple has been in Munich for more than 40 years and we look forward to our future here more than ever.«

Cook praises Munich

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 located 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 cooperation between our more than 2,000 engineers in Bavaria who work on groundbreaking innovations such as our own chip designs, power management and future wireless technologies.«

beb/dpa