Microsoft hires key Apple chip designer to build its own chips

Apple's new 5 G iPhone 12 went on sale on October 23, 2020 in Brooklyn, New York, U.S. REUTERS Brendan McDermid File Photo

A key Apple Inc AAPL.O engineer has been hired by Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O to design its own chips for its servers, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. It was cited by people with knowledge of the matter.

The software giant has hired chip industry veteran Mike Filippo, who worked for Apple for over two years.

A source told Reuters in December 2020 that Microsoft is working on in-house processors for the servers running its cloud-computing services and Surface line of personal computers.

The cloud computing heavyweight relies heavily on Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD.O to supply chips for its Azure cloud computing services as well as Surface PCs.

The report said that Microsoft is accelerating the push to create homegrown chips for the servers that power Azure cloud computing services because of Filippo's hire.

Filippo, who started his career as a CPU designer at chip designer AMD in 1996, previously worked at Intel and UK-based ARM Ltd before joining Apple, according to his LinkedIn profile.