WSJ: Apple's Increasing Interest in Israel Related to Chip Design

Apple's increasing interest in Israel is related to chip design, reports The Wall Street Journal. Apple recently opened a new R&D office in Israel, making it the second largest research and development hub outside of the United States

What is Apple looking for in Israel? A possible answer lies in the companies it’s already bought: Anobit Technologies Ltd. and PrimeSense Ltd., two microprocessor chip design firms. Apple has also hired most of the Israeli employees of a chip-design division that Texas Instruments decided to shut down in 2013 in Ra’anana, some 10 miles north of Tel-Aviv. In the past three years, Apple has hired staff for its chip design center in Haifa. And on its current jobs posting site for Israel, Apple is advertising for a range of hardware and software positions, including silicon and semiconductor design and testing engineers who will be required to work in labs.

Apple could be looking to being development of chips in-house, instead of relying on third-party manufactures like Samsung and TSMC. Just yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly met with Israeli officials and visited Apple's new office located in Herzliya.


Apple's Johny Srouji, vice president of hardware technologies at the company, is heading the company's chip capabilities. Srouji, an Israeli Arab, grew up in Haifa and joined Apple in 2008.

“Israel and Apple have gotten much closer together over the last three years than ever before, and we see that as just the beginning,” Tim Cook said in the meeting with Israeli president Reuven Rivlin.