Apple Lures Talent from iPhone 7 Graphics Processor Supplier

Since the deal to acquire the British chip designer Imagination Technologies fell through, Apple has hired away talent from the supplier of its iPhone 7 graphics processor.

Business Insider reports that Apple has hired several senior employees of Imagination Technologies, alongside a handful of engineering talent.

Among those was Imagination’s COO John Metcalfe, who has been with the British chip maker for nearly 20 years. According to his LinkedIn page, he has been senior director at Apple since July. He followed Imagination’s VP of Hardware Engineering, who made the jump to Apple a year ago.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg: Another six technical employees from the British company have moved to the iPhone maker since September, joining the team that works on GPU technology in Greater London, reports Business Insider. GPU plays an important role in technologies such as computer vision, self-driving cars, VR and AR.

This won’t affect Imagination’s performance in the long run, however, since it is a 1,400-person company, a company spokesperson told BI.