Apple last week confirmed its $1 billion acquisition of Intel’s modem business, and Tim Cook today offered additional commentary on the deal during Apple’s investor call. Cook touted the size of the acquisition, as well as the benefits it will provide to Apple.

Cook said that Apple’s acquisition of Intel’s smartphone modem business is the second largest acquisition Apple has made by dollar value – Beats is the largest at $3 billion. In terms of talent, however, Intel is now Apple’s largest acquisition, as it will gain approximately 2,200 Intel employees through the deal.

Furthermore, Cook added that Apple sees this as an opportunity to expedite its development for future products, as well as to own and control the “primary technologies” behind the products it makes.

Last week we announced an agreement with Intel to acquire the majority of its smartphone modem business. This is our second-largest acquisition by dollars and our largest ever in terms of staff. We’re looking forward to welcoming all of them to Apple. We see this as a great opportunity to work with some of the leading talents in this field, to grow our portfolio of wireless technology patents to over 17,000, to expedite our development of our future products, and to further our long-term strategy of owning and controlling the primary technologies behind the products that we make.

These comments from Tim Cook are a clear hint at Apple’s plans to develop its own modem technology, which has been reported several times. This also isn’t the first time Cook has acknowledged Apple’s goal of making all key iPhone components in-house.

Following Apple’s deal with Intel, a report from Reuters suggested that Apple wants to ship its in-house modem in devices as soon as 2021. Furthermore, Ming-Chi Kuo has said that Apple will now be able to transition all of the 2020 iPhones to 5G, though these devices will still use modems from Qualcomm.

Read more:

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news: