Qualcomm believes that a team of former Apple employees now working for the chipmaker can build a laptop chip that can compete with Apple Silicon.
Current laptop chip manufacturers, such as Intel and AMD, do not have silicon that is as energy efficient as Apple’s M1, but Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon believes his business will be able to build a laptop processor that can compete with Apple’s in the future.
Qualcomm wants to Compete Apple
According to Amon, the chipmaker in San Diego has concluded that if its clients want to compete with Apple, they must develop their own silicon. The company’s Snapdragon smartphone chips are now based on the ARM architecture.
Chip giants, on the other hand, purchased Nuvia, a chip design startup created by a group of former Apple employees, earlier in 2021. In 2022, Qualcomm plans to begin manufacturing laptop processors based on Nuvia’s technology.
Nuvia was formed by Gerard Williams III, a former Apple engineer who was sued by the firm for allegedly exploiting its own technology and poaching other employees while still employed there.
The company continues to hedge its bets. If ARM can build a chip that is superior than what Qualcomm has, Amon believes chip gaints should use that technology.
Using ARM Relation
If Arm, which we’ve had a relationship with for years, eventually develops a CPU that’s better than what we can build ourselves, then we always have the option to license from Arm.
“For a battery-powered device, we needed to have the best performance,” Amon stated. “If ARM, with whom we’ve had a long relationship, creates a CPU that is superior to what we can build ourselves, we always have the option of licencing from ARM.”
Amon was the driving force behind Qualcomm’s $1.4 billion acquisition of Nuvia in 2021. In January, he was named CEO of the company.
Qualcomm – Supplier of Modems to Apple
Qualcomm remains an important Apple supplier, and its modems are found in every iPhone 12 model. After a years-long court dispute over patent licencing, Apple and Qualcomm agreed to utilise its chips in iPhones. The two corporations came to an agreement that included a chip supply pact, in 2019.
Apple is also rumoured to be working on its own wireless modem technology, possibly in an attempt to break away from Qualcomm. The Cupertino tech behemoth has opened a factory in San Diego, right in chip giants’ backyard, with ambitions to hire 1,200 people by 2022