"Apple recently settled a long-term dispute with Qualcomm over royalty payments. Hours after the settlement, Intel announced that it was quitting the development of cellular baseband for 5G. Since Apple is constantly trying to vertically integrate and having its own modem is the next target. For this, it has already started to hire ex-Intel employees. It will take around 6-8 years for Apple to develop and test its modem. Until then it had to strike a deal with Qualcomm for six years. Bringing in talent from Intel will add to Apple's arsenal for developing the modem business." – Parv Sharma