Apple nabs former TI engineers for chip push, report says

Reports suggest that Apple is in the hunt for former Texas Instruments engineers in Israel, in a bid to expand its operations in the country.

According to sources speaking to The Next Web, Apple has been hiring "dozens" of engineers after the chipmaker cut 250 jobs from one of its Israeli operations center.

Apple is ramping up its efforts to build research and development centers in Herzliya and Haifa, the report said.

TI this month announced a round of redundancies, in the region of 1,700 employees worldwide, as it aims to pull out of the consumer market while focusing on embedded systems. The company aims to focus on selling its chip technology into embedded markets and the automotive sector.

According to the report, the engineers were working on radio chips, such as those supporting Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technology, used in a number smartphones and tablets. But TI began to wind down its OMAP operations -- or Open Multimedia Applications Platform, a system-on-a-chip (SoC) used in such products as the Kindle Fire -- while shifting its research and developments efforts back to the U.S.

Earlier this year, Apple was reportedly on the lookout for talent for its Israel research and development center in Haifa, including recruiting new employees.

Last month, amid the departure of iOS chief Scott Forstall, Apple's top executive team was shaken up, and hardware engineering chief Bob Mansfield was pulled out of retirement to head up the Cupertino, Calif.-based technology giant's Technologies unit.

The new division is understood to oversee the company's wireless networking efforts, along with its chipmaking business, giving Apple an opportunity to turn its chip design and building efforts in-house, cutting out smartphone rival Samsung, which currently manufacturers chips for the company, and gaining a firmer grip on its increasingly leaky supply chain.

We've put in questions to Apple, and we will update the post if we hear back.