The British company, which makes money from selling licenses to patents and designs for graphics cards, counts Apple as its largest customer. Imagination Technologies isn't alone: There are dozens of companies that get 20 percent or more of their revenue from Apple, according to FactSet.

Apple said Monday it would move away from using Imagination Technologies ' intellectual property — and Imagination Technologies saw its share price plummet nearly 62 percent in London.

Source: FactSet

To be sure, Apple hasn't made any more new moves yet — these stocks traded in a narrow range on Monday.

But longer term, the chip industry in particular may have to compete with Apple's piles of cash. Apple now does "much more in-house development of some fundamental technologies than ... a few years ago," especially processors and sensors, the tech giant's chief financial officer, Luca Maestri, said earlier this year at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco.

Even a big supplier, Qualcomm, has faced the wrath of Apple's chip crusade. Apple has waged a $1 billion legal battle, alleging the company has unfairly charged high chip royalties. SoftBank — a company with deep Apple ties — also agreed to buy leading chip designer ARM last year.

Not to mention Apple's staffing up: It hired Imagination Technologies' chief operating officer last year, according to Business Insider.

Apple spent more than $10 billion on research and development in 2016, up from $8.07 billion in 2015 and $6.04 billion in 2014. That means that the company spent 5 percent of its total net sales on research last year, up from 3 percent in the prior two years.

"It's very important for us because we can push the envelope on innovation, we can better control timing, cost, quality. We look at that as a great strategic investment," Maestri said at the conference.

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