Apple is teaming up with old frenemy Samsung to build iPhone 18 image sensors

Samsung will reportedly produce advanced digital image sensors and chips at a facility in Texas that Apple will use in next year’s iPhone 18 lineup.

Apple announced on Wednesday that it is partnering up with Samsung Electronics on “an innovative new technology for making chips, which has never been used before anywhere in the world.”

The new chipmaking technology will be utilized at Samsung’s semiconductor facility in Austin, Texas, the company said. No further details were provided but The Financial Times reported today Samsung will produce three-layer stacked image sensor for net year’s iPhone 18 models.

Apple and Samsung team up on iPhone image sensors

“By bringing this technology to the US first, this facility will supply chips that optimize power and performance of Apple products, including iPhone devices shipped all over the world,” Apple said in yesterday’s press release.

As part of the announcement, Apple CEO Tim Cook appeared alongside Trump at a White House press conference to announce Apple’s investment of $100 billion in US manufacturing.

The $100 billion investment expands Apple’s $500 billion American Manufacturing Program announced earlier this year, so the company will now invest a total of $600 billion in US manufacturing. During the presser, Cook gifted a piece of Corning glass with the Apple logo cut into it, mounted on a 24-karat gold base, to the president.

Although Trump said foreign chips will be subjected to 100 percent tariffs, the chip-making deal between Apple and Samsung might solve this problem.

The significance of this deal is even greater because Apple has traditionally used digital image sensors from Sony in iPhones for many years. However, Sony’s chips are being fabricated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in Kumamoto, Japan. Because Sony doesn’t have any chipmaking facilitates in the United States, its chips could be subjected to tariffs.

“We remain confident that we are advanced in providing sensor technology to our customers, and we will focus on continuing further technological advancement through larger sensor size and density,” Sony said in a statement.

There’s also another aspect to it. Apple and Samsung had been embroiled in a bitter patent dispute that lasted for years and resulted in Apple dropping Samsung Electronics as its main chip producer in favor of TSMC. With this deal, Sony will no longer be the sole supplier of iPhone image sensors while Samsung’s troubled semiconductor unit will gain a major client that could help turn its business around.

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