Apple has extended its deal to buy Snapdragon 5G modem chips from chip giant Qualcomm for another three years, a sign that the iPhone maker's in-house chip design efforts are taking longer than expected.

Apple's chip supply deal with Qualcomm, the world's largest smartphone chipmaker, will end this year, meaning the iPhones expected to launch on September 12 will be the last phones to use Qualcomm modem chips.

Under the deal announced on September 11, Qualcomm will supply chips for Apple phones launched between 2024 and 2026. The company did not disclose the value of the contract this time, only saying that the terms this time are the same as before.

Qualcomm also said that the patent licensing agreement it signed with Apple in 2019 remains in place. That agreement expires in 2025, but the companies can extend it for two more years.

Apple has always wanted to use its own products. In 2020, the company ended its 15-year partnership with Intel, citing plans to build MacBooks with its own chips. Since then, a series of MacBooks have been released with Apple's "homegrown" chips.

Smartphones are a different story. Apple is working on its own modem technology, spending $1 billion to buy Intel's mobile modem chip unit in 2019. Still, its continued partnership with Qualcomm shows that the company isn't ready to go it alone in this space .

Nguyen Tuyet (According to Reuters, Yahoo! Finance)