Apple has announced a new multibillion-dollar deal with Broadcom, a leading technology and advanced manufacturing company in the U.S., to manufacture 5G radio frequency components in the US to be used in some of Apple’s devices.
Made in the U.S.
As part of the multi-year deal, Broadcom will also develop cutting-edge wireless connectivity components and film bulk acoustic resonators (FBAR) filters. According to a study published in Science Direct, FBAR is widely utilized as an RF filter used to achieve minimal in-band losses and high-quality factors in complex 5G wireless communication systems, according to a 200.
The FBAR filters will be created and constructed at a number of significant American manufacturing and technological hubs, including Fort Collins, Colorado, which is home to Broadcom’s largest factory, as stated by Apple.
Apple announces multibillion-dollar deal with Broadcom for 5G components made in the USAhttps://t.co/CVbJckrwLD $AAPL $AVGO
— Brandon Butch (@BrandonButch) May 23, 2023
In the May 23 statement, Apple CEO, Tim Cook said, “We’re thrilled to make commitments that harness the ingenuity, creativity, and innovative spirit of American manufacturing.”
A key element of this deal is the requirement that the components be manufactured in the US so as to support the tech giant’s pledge in 2021 to invest $430 billion in domestic tech companies over the following five years.
The company said:
“Today, Apple is on pace to meet its target through direct spend with American suppliers, data center investments, capital expenditures in the U.S., and other domestic spend.”
“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,” Cook added.
Apple, like many other American technology companies, is constantly under pressure to source components and assemble products domestically in the United States. The Mac Pro desktop was the last product to be assembled in the country, earning the privilege to display the label “Made in the USA” on its packaging.
Regardless, Apple has been steady in its support for American manufacturers, and even before this agreement, the company has been contributing to the support of more than 1,100 jobs in Broadcom’s Fort Collins FBAR filter production facility.
This partnership will therefore allow Broadcom to keep investing in crucial automation projects while upskilling its engineers and technicians.
Aside from that, Apple supports the country’s manufacturing industry through direct employment and offering developer positions in the expanding iOS app economy, as well as spending with more than 9,000 U.S. suppliers and manufacturers of all sizes in all 50 states across dozens of sectors.
Apple Plans to Move In-house
Apple releases a Supplier Report every year that includes information about the suppliers and the facilities where Apple component manufacturing takes place globally along with its direct spending on materials.
Based on the 2022 report, while the majority of the production sites were in Asia, 32 of them were in America, including Broadcom which had previously provided Apple with components from its manufacturing plants in Colorado and Pennsylvania.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that Apple had plans to drop a key Broadcom chip to use an in-house design. Despite the transition being set for late 2024 or early 2025, the new partnership deal has not refuted the reports.
The transition will also see Apple moving from Qualcomm’s cellular modem to its own versatile wireless chip that combines Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular communication into a single unit which is rumored to be in development.