Apple’s new iPhone 16 will feature a chip developed using Arm’s latest V9 chip design, according to a report from the Financial Times (FT).

The news comes as Apple plans to further integrate generative AI capabilities and tools to its line of smartphones, with the company likely to unveil its latest iPhone at an event on Monday.

The new iPhone’s A18 chip will leverage technology from Arm, a UK-based company whose architecture is mostly used in smartphones. The firm was acquired by SoftBank in 2016 for about $32 billion.

SoftBank later sold 25 per cent of the business for $8 billion to the Vision Fund, which was set up to invest in new technologies.

Arm, which currently holds a multi-year licencing agreement with Apple, became a US-listed enterprise in September 2023 after pricing at $51 per share giving it a value of $54.5 billion. The chipmaker said in July that its V9 chip design applications accounts for 50 per cent of smartphone revenue.

The new chip incorporation solidifies Arm’s partnership with Apple, after the tech giant sealed an agreement to incorporate its V9 architecture in Apple’s M4 MacBook chips, which Apple described as “a giant leap” in performance for next-gen PCs.

Additionally, the new iPhone will also include Apple Intelligence, a new AI system embedded in iOS 18, which is expected to bring a range of AI features to enhance various smartphone functions.

The list of features includes a newly improved Siri, custom emoji generation, and photo editing capabilities using its own in-house AI models as well as a partnership with ChatGPT.

The FT said in its report that the full suite of Apple Intelligence will be rolled out gradually, with some functions becoming available later this year, while others will launch in 2025.

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