The iPhone Air is a big newcomer in Apple’s latest lineup that went on sale Friday, but the interior of the Raised Plateau on the Slim Phone is another new hardware that marks a new focus on artificial intelligence.
Apple’s custom A19 Pro chip introduces major architectural changes, with additional nerve accelerators added to each GPU core to increase computational power. Apple also debuted the first wireless chip of the N1 iPhone and the C1X, the second generation of iPhone modems. Analysts say they control Apple for every core chip on the phone.
“That’s the magic. When we’re in control, we can do things beyond what we can by purchasing the silicon part of the merchant,” said Tim Millet, Apple’s vice president of platform architecture. He sat at CNBC at Apple Park in September to give his first US interview about the new chip.
Until now, Broadcom Although it was the main provider of wireless and Bluetooth chips for IPHONE, Apple has been creating network chips for AirPods and Apple Watch for nearly a decade. Apple’s N1 is available in the iPhone 17 lineup and the entire iPhone Air.
Arun Mathias, Apple’s Vice President of Wireless Software Technologies and Ecosystems, has given CNBC an example of an improvement to the N1’s Wi-Fi functionality.
“One thing people don’t realize is that there’s no need to use GPS because Wi-Fi access points actually contribute to the realization of the device’s location. “You can do this more seamlessly in the background, and you can do it more efficiently without having to wake up the application processor too much.”
Apple’s new custom SOC on iPhone, A19 Pro, adds a nerve accelerator to the GPU core to prioritize AI workloads
Emily Park
For iPhone modems, Qualcomm was the only provider since 2020. This changed when Apple announced the C1 on the iPhone 16e in February. This is a plan that Apple first began moving in 2019 after buying Intel’s Modem Business for $1 billion. Qualcomm has long been warning investors about changes to come.
Qualcomm Modems remains on the iPhone 17, 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max, while Apple’s C1X is on the iPhone Air.
“In terms of overall throughput and performance, it may not be as good as Qualcomm’s one, but you can control it and get it to work at low power. So you can improve battery life.” He hopes Apple will “phasise completely” Qualcomm in the next few years.
Apple’s Mathias said the C1X is “up to twice as fast” as the C1, and “uses 30% less energy” than the Qualcomm modem on the iPhone 16 Pro.
Neither Qualcomm nor Broadcom saw much of the market impact following Apple’s announcement. The companies maintain license agreements with Apple for certain core technologies.
A19 Pro’s AI Accelerator
Apple’s three new chips come amid increasing pressure from Wall Street regarding its AI strategy.
“They probably don’t have that own Apple model Google Or Openai,” Bajarin said. They hope that the iPhone will be the perfect place for developers to run AI. ”
Apple has been creating its own systems with chips or SOCs since the A-series launched on the iPhone 4 in 2010. The latest generation A19 Pro has a new chip architecture that prioritizes AI workloads, adding neural accelerators to the GPU core.
“We’re building the best device AI capabilities that someone else has,” Millett told CNBC. “Now we’re focused on enabling these phones that are being shipped today, or shipping right away, to enable all the critical on-vice AI workloads coming.”
Privacy is the main reason Apple prioritizes Device AI, but Millet also said there is another reason.
“It’s efficient for us. It responds. We know we have much more control over the experience,” he said.
One of the “built-in AI” features is the new front camera that uses AI to detect new faces and automatically switch to taking horizontal photos. “This perfectly complements almost everything the A19 Pro has,” Millet said.
Apple’s original AI hardware, Neural Engine, was first announced in 2017. It was hardly mentioned at the time of release. Instead, it’s all about adding computational power to the GPU.
“Nerve processing integration is reaching performance in the MacBook Pro class within the iPhone,” says Millet. “This is a huge step forward in ML computing. So, if you look inside a nerve engine, for example, there’s a lot of dense matrix mathematics. The GPU didn’t have that ability.
Bajarin told CNBC that Apple’s nerve accelerator could work similarly to the tensor core. nvidiaAI chips such as the H100.
“We are integrating neural processing so that we can allow people to write programs on any of those small processors, extend the instruction set, extend new classes of computers that have access right there, and allow them to switch back and forth between 3D rendering and neural processing instructions.
Apple’s previous generation A19 SoC is on the base model iPhone 17, while the A19 Pro is on the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 and 17 Pro Max.
Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro was shown at Apple Park in California on September 9, 2025, and has enhanced 3D rendering capabilities with Apple’s custom chip A19 Pro, adding nerve accelerators to six GPU cores.
Katie Tarasov
Following the iPhone 15’s overheating issue, the new “steam chamber” on the Pro model keeps the custom chip cool.
“The system is actually located in sync with where the A19 Pro, the chip system, is located,” said Kaiann Drance, vice president of Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing at Apple. “We’re thinking about how all of that will come together. This means that it’s very thermally conductive, so it can effectively dissipate heat in the steam chamber. This creates a metal bond that dissipates the heat, where the laser is welded, where it’s located at the tip.”
More chips, more US manufacturing
Apple still relies on other components for smaller components, such as Samsung for Memory and Texas Instruments for Analog Chips. However, according to Bajarin, all the big core chips may be designed by Apple on all iPhones soon next year.
“We expect a modem to arrive at MAC. We expect a modem to arrive at the iPad. Perhaps an n-variant of the network chip will be coming to Mac,” says Bajarin. “I think it’s in every portfolio over the next few years.”
When CNBC asked Apple’s millet if there is a nerve accelerator in the next expected MAC GPU core, he said, “There is a unified approach to architecture.”
The iPhone manufacturer plans to manufacture at least several custom chips in the US. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing CompanyCNBC received a tour of the first completed fab at its new campus in Arizona.
Apple’s A19 Pro is made with the cutting edge of TSMC’s 3 nanometer nodes. TSMC is working on 3NM production in Arizona by 2028, but it’s not there yet.
“If we need to be on the cutting edge, it’s going to be Taiwan for the time being,” Bajarin said.
In August, Trump announced a 100% tariff on tips from non-domestic businesses. On the same day, Apple increased its US spending commitment to $600 billion over the next four years. CEO Tim Cook said that part of it will be directed towards creating a “American end-to-end silicon supply chain.”
“I really have doubts as to which part of the tariff will affect the silicon supply chain,” Bajarin said. “This is clearly why Apple and Tim Cook are on their mission and are talking about investing in America.”
As part of that plan, Bajain said Apple could struggle with us Intel “If 14A actually makes all of that promises come true, take a serious look,” but he added, “it’s going to be “a little while” before Intel becomes a ‘viable option.’
For now, Apple is working on making chips at TSMC Arizona.
“We are very excited about TSMC promoting US manufacturing. It clearly helps us from a time zone perspective. We are also grateful that the diversity of supply is really important,” Millett said.
When asked if he knew how much Apple’s $600 billion cost would be spent on custom silicon, Millet said, “I hope there’s a lot of it.”
Watch the video and watch behind the scenes Apple’s latest custom silicon.
Kif Leswing contributed to this report.
