The American wireless connectivity chipmaker Qorvo said that it would be selling two of its factories in China to a local company. The financial terms of the deal have not been announced.
According to the South China Morning Post, the North Carolina-based organization said that it had signed an agreement to sell its circuit assembly operations in Beijing and Dezhou to the iPhone assembler Luxshare Precision Industry.
Luxshare will take over the operations and the company’s assets including the property, the plant, equipment and the existing workforce. Qorvo will maintain sales, engineering and customer support teams in China.
Once the deal is completed, which is expected to occur during the first half of 2024, the two sides will enter into a long-term supply agreement to see Luxshare manufacture and test products made by the U.S. chip company.
Luxshare has become a major part of Apple’s Chinese manufacturing operations after the company was founded as a computer cable assembler almost 20 years ago in Dongguan. Luxshare is one of Apple’s biggest suppliers of AirPods and was also tapped to make models of the iPhone 14 following worker clashes at Foxconn Technology Group’s Zhengzhou plant towards the end of 2022.
Apple is one of Qorvo’s biggest customers, contributing almost 37% to the company’s total revenue for the fiscal year that ended April 2023.
