Apple has historically outsourced their A5 chip production to Asian manufacturing plants, however this has recently changed with a move away from offshore production lines and into the great state of Texas.
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.
Samsung, makers of the A5 chip designed by Apple that sits at the heart of the new iPhone 4S and iPad 2, recently completed a $3.6 billion non-memory chip production plant in December which is now fully up and running, pumping out A5 chips at a full production rate to help Apple keep up with demand of their popular iOS devices.
Samsung added around 1,100 jobs to support the new chip production line, which is said to be equivalent the size of 9 football fields. Why Austin Texas? The reason for the move is said to be due to the high amount of educated workers fresh out of the gate from the University of Texas' engineering school.
Source: Reuters
