Apple is doubling down on its commitment to its Munich operations by making the city its European Silicon Design centre. 

The plan entails the construction of a new state-of-the-art facility that will focus on connectivity and wireless technologies, and create hundreds of local jobs, the company said in a statement on March 10. 

The expansion, together with additional investment in research and development (R&D), will exceed €1bn in the next three years alone, the company added. 

“I couldn’t be more excited for everything our Munich engineering teams will discover — from exploring the new frontiers of 5G technology to a new generation of technologies that bring power, speed and connectivity to the world,” Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said in the statement. 

Located in Munich city centre and scheduled to come online in late 2022, the new 30,000-square-metre facility will be home to Apple’s growing cellular unit, and its largest R&D site for mobile wireless semiconductors and software in Europe. 

The city is already Apple’s largest engineering hub in Europe, with almost 1500 engineers from 40 countries working across seven offices in a variety of areas, including power management design, application processors and wireless technologies. 

In 2015, Apple opened its Bavarian design centre, which now has more than 350 engineers. The team’s initial focus was on power management design and they have been critical to Apple’s efforts to deliver multiple power management unit chips. And in 2019, the company added silicon engineering sites in Nabern, Kirchheim unter Teck, 200km west of Munich. Today, about half of Apple’s global power management design team is located in Germany, the company said. 

Apple has spent over €15bn with more than 700 firms across Germany in the past five years, the company’s figures show. This includes the chip manufacturer Infineon, battery company Varta and the family-owned chemical company DELO, which is delivering resin for face identification technology in Apple’s newest products.

Located an hour outside of Munich, DELO has also been working with Apple’s environmental team in the region to reduce its use of harmful chemicals and its carbon footprint, joining Apple’s commitment to be carbon neutral across its entire business, supply chain and product life cycle by 2030.

In 2015, Apple launched the Supplier Clean Energy Program and, across Germany, suppliers are working toward new solutions to run their Apple production with 100% renewable power. Companies including Henkel, Tesa SE and Varta have also joined. Once all of Apple’s supplier projects are completed, these commitments will save 14.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually — the same as taking more than 3 million cars off the road each year.

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Project profile

Apple’s European Silicon Design centre, Munich

Investment: €1bn in the next three years 

Focus: Connectivity and wireless technologies