There have been countless rumors that Apple wants to shift its component manufacturing business away from Samsung, because it doesn’t want to line the pockets of its arch rival with billions of dollars. Even though the pieces of the strained relationship between these two giants have been picked up by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a new report out of Korea suggests that Apple has once again tapped Samsung for producing majority of A-series chips starting next year.
Apple doesn’t disclose its dealings with suppliers but media reports widely suggest that majority of the A8-chips are produced by TSMC, and despite that, Samsung still accounts for 40 percent of all chips for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
The report suggests that this new deal will increase Samsung’s participation in this process, with the Korean giant expected to take over 80 percent of Apple’s chip allocation by 2016, with TSMC only getting 20 percent. Under this deal Samsung will produce chips for Apple at its plants in Austin, Texas, New York and in South Korea.
There is no confirmation of this deal from either Samsung or Apple, and we can’t expect both of them to say anything, because such deals are usually not discussed in public.
TSMC was rumored to produce chips for Apple a long time back and this finally happened with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but if this report is anything to go by, the bulk of Apple’s business may once again go to Samsung.