Apple expands European Silicon Design Centre with €1b investment

Hot on the heels of claims Apple plans to begin using its own self-developed 5G chipsets in future products comes news of an additional billion-Euro investment in the company’s R&D facilities where the tech is being made.

A big investment in German expertise

Apple has always had hubs in Germany, but the size of this grew vastly on the company’s purchase of the modem research teams from Intel. Intel’s modem business was built on the back of Apple’s former modem supplier, Infineon, but Apple was also Intel’s biggest modem customer. Munich is Apple’s largest engineering hub in Europe and the company now employs 4,500 people in the nation and over 2,000 at the Silicon Design Center.

The company will now invest a billion euros in building three more r&d facilities in Munich, Germany over the next six years. It invested an additional billion when it established the location as its European Silicon Design Centre.

“Our Munich engineering teams are on the cutting edge of innovation, helping imagine new technologies at the heart of the products we make,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Apple has been in Munich for more than 40 years, and we’ve never been more excited about what the future holds here.”

On the road to 5G – and beyond

Apple’s Munich-based teams have contributed to the silicon designs used in the latest Apple products, as well as critical cellular and power management innovations.

“Our R&D teams in Munich are critical to our efforts to develop products delivering greater performance, efficiency, and power savings,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies.

“The expansion of our European Silicon Design Centre will enable an even closer collaboration between our more than 2,000 engineers in Bavaria working on breakthrough innovations, including custom silicon designs, power management chips, and future wireless technologies.”

What the site involves

Building on Apple’s longstanding presence in Germany and growing investments across Europe, the company will design and construct a state-of-the-art research facility at Seidlstrasse. Teams will also occupy several additional R&D spaces at Denisstrasse and Marsstrasse as part of the Silicon Design Centre expansion.

The three new sites are located across the street from Apple’s recently opened R&D facility at Karlstrasse, creating a hub of invention and innovation in the centre of Munich. Together with engineering sites at Arnulfstrasse and Hackerbrücke, the new facilities form Apple’s European Silicon Design Centre, centrally located in Munich’s Maxvorstadt neighbourhood.

The Silicon Design Centre is walking distance from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) — one of Europe’s leading engineering schools and research institutes. Apple teams have worked on several mobile wireless research projects there.

Some interesting stats about Apple in Germany

In a press release announcing its plans, Apple also revealed that:

• Apple has spent over 18 billion euros with more than 800 German companies over the last five years.
• Germany’s iOS app economy supports over 400,000 jobs.
• Developers across Germany have earned more than 3 billion euros from their apps.
• The App Store Foundations Program has reached more than 250 German developers.
• Apple’s employees have raised nearly 830 million euros in total donations globally — and have volunteered more than 2 million hours — for organisations such as the Munich Ambulant Children’s Hospice Foundation, Tafel Munich, Bavarian Red Cross, and Munich-based mentoring initiative Rock Your Life!.

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