According to a report in Bloomberg that confirms our earlier reports, Samsung is all set to win back manufacturing rights of Apple’s next generation A9 processor. The current A8 processors are manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. The A9 chips will be manufactured by Samsung at its Gilheung plant in South Korea and the additional orders will go to Samsung’s partner Globalfoundries Inc., according to another person familiar with the arrangement. The news of Samsung manufacturing A9 chips is unexpected as the two companies had unceremoniously cut ties off after legal disputes.
Samsung is the world’s second largest semiconductor manufacturer and this contract will go a long way in Samsung reclaiming its throne. So far, executives at Samsung hsve declined to discuss the matter in public. Samsung has expanded its facilities to win orders from Apple and Qualcomm and will hope that Globalfoundries Inc. can adopt Samsung’s latest technology to win additional orders. Samsung has plans to set up a $15 billion chip manufacturing factory outside Seoul and move a part of its operations outside China. Analysts estimate that Samsung will be able to reverse $900 million loss last year to $900 million gain if it manages to win the orders for manufacturing Apple’s latest chip.
Last year, Apple had spent over $25.8 billion on processing chips accounting for a sizeable chunk of industry’s purchase. Apple is all set to bring out the new iPhones as reported by us earlier. There is also a possibility of Apple launching a new 4-inch model which will be powered in by the same A8 chip found on the current line of iPhones. It remains to be seen if TSMC will continue to manufacture the A8 chips.
The iPhone Help
The iPhone Help