Broadcom signs 2 new multi-year agreements with Apple, says it expects to generate $15B by supplying wireless chips for Apple devices released through mid-2023
- Broadcom put its RF chip business up for sale last year — Chipmaker to supply components for Apple devices into 2023
Context & Ripple Effects
In 2019 Broadcom put its RF chip business on the block; these two multi-year Apple agreements are the counter-move — rather than divesting, Broadcom has locked in roughly $15B of contracted revenue for wireless components across Apple devices released through mid-2023. The deal converts a business Broadcom was shopping into a visible, multi-year cash-flow line.
The arc since then runs one direction: Apple later announced a multiyear, multibillion-dollar 5G and wireless components deal covering FBAR filters manufactured in the US, and the partnership has since been extended toward 2031 — even as Apple separately develops its own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip to replace Broadcom parts.
First-order effects
- Broadcom's RF business goes from sale candidate to committed revenue engine, with $15B of expected wireless chip sales tied to Apple devices shipping through mid-2023.
- Apple secures multi-year supply of RF front-end components at fixed terms, reducing sourcing risk for its device roadmap through mid-2023.
Second-order effects
- The guaranteed volume makes Broadcom's RF franchise more valuable to any acquirer — or, as it turned out, worth retaining outright, setting up the 2023 US-based 5G/FBAR manufacturing expansion.
- Apple hedges the dependency: its in-house Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip program targets replacing Broadcom components by 2025, so every renewal now coexists with a qualification track for internal silicon.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, component supply relationships harden into decade-long co-development contracts — the 2020 revenue guarantee foreshadowed the custom-chip extension through 2031 and the $30B+, 15-billion-chip US manufacturing commitment.
- Suppliers whose parts Apple can eventually design out face a structural ceiling: Broadcom's answer has been to deepen integration (custom chips, US fabs) faster than Apple's internal roadmap can displace it.
The trend: Apple's component sourcing is shifting from transactional purchasing to long-dated, co-developed supply contracts anchored in US manufacturing, even as it builds replacement silicon in-house.