Apple has been criticized for not using components made in America for its products such as iPads and iPhones. It was announced that the company will now buy A5 chips from a factory in Texas. The chips power the iPad 2 tablets and iPhone 4S. They are now produced by Samsung in a plant in Austin. Samsung previously made the chips in its South Korea plant.
It would not be a surprise if Apple would order the parts for the iPad 3 or any other components for future Apple devices from the Texas plant. The A4 was also produced by Samsung and now it is also making the A5 for Apple. Apple’s A6 chip is expected to have twice the processing speed of the A5 and would come from the Texas facility.
Samsung invested around $3.6 billion to build the new factory in Austin, Texas. It has a total area of 1.6 million square feet, which is the size of nine football fields. The Austin Chamber of Commerce said that it is the largest foreign investment in the state. It has started making non-memory chips since early part of this month. Most of its output is for Apple chips. The plant hires 1,100 workers.
