Apple is buying American -- well, sort of. The tech giant is using A5 chips manufactured by American workers at Samsung's new Austin, Texas plant.
According to Reuters:
The A5 processor - the brain in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 - is now made in a sprawling 1.6 million square feet factory in Austin owned by Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics, according to people familiar with the operation.
The $3.6 billion non-memory chip production line launched full-scale production earlier this month. Nearly all the manufacturing is dedicated to Apple's chips. The A5 chip debuted in the iPad 2 this year and is also used in the iPhone 4S.
Austin, a well-known tech town with a plethora of engineers, already has a semiconductor history and infrastructure ready for the manufacturer. Samsung added 1,100 jobs by opening the factory that creates 40,000 silicon wafers a month, Samsung reported.
Despite Apple and Samsung's legal disputes, their symbiotic relationship shows no signs of stopping. The new development of a Samsung plant in Austin seems to make this more apparent -- bringing the necessary chips closer to Apple's headquarters in Cupertino. Although Apple has the components put together in China and Taiwan, Samsung setting up shop in Apple's own backyard has to be one of the more interesting development of their partnership.
