Google is getting serious on building its own processors and hires Apple engineer as key person in the plan
Google is becoming more and more serious about creating its own processors, just as Apple does. The company decided to hire Many Gulati, who was an engineer at Apple. He has at least 15 Apple patents related to chip design in his sleeve and will be a key element in Google’s plan to create its own processors.
Apple is currently building its own smartphone processors, while Google has just figured out that it would be a good idea to do so.
For example, Apple’s latest A10X chips, are built in-house, and not by companies such as Intel or Qualcomm. At the moment, Qualcomm supplies the Snapdragon processor for Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL phones.
Checking Gulati’s LinkedIn profile, we see that it now says he’s Google’s “lead SOC architect.” SoC means “System on a Chip”. He has been a part of Apple’s team for almost 8 years as a micro-architect. In the past, he has also been employed by Broadcom and AMD.
If Google start building its own processors, it would potentially lead to cutting down on the reliance on Qualcomm. However, this would not be a big hit for Qualcomm, at least not for the moment, as they still provide millions of Snapdragon processors to companies such as Samsung, LG, HTC, and others.
However, it is a significant trend in the smartphone market. Huawei and Samsung also took the step and decided to start building their own chips, which allows them to rely less on potential supply restraints from third parties.
Google confirmed that Manu is now working for Google, but declined to add any further information on the matter. It is expected that, in the future, a spokesperson for Apple will release comments on the current situation.
