Apple Buys Former Semiconductor Plant in North San Jose for $18.2 Million

Apple has purchased additional real estate in North San Jose, this time snapping up a 70,000 square foot building at 3725 N. First Street, reports the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Apple paid $18.2 million for the building, which formerly served as a manufacturing facility for Maxim Integrated Products, a semiconductor company.

It is not known what Apple will do with the building, but a description of the real estate listing suggests it could be used for manufacturing or research and development. Analysts the Silicon Valley Business Journal spoke with believe it's likely to be used as research space for prototyping given its small size, and Apple said in a statement it is expanding into San Jose with office space and research and development facilities.

maximfacility

Asked for comment, Apple provided an emailed statement that reads: "As we continue to grow, we're planning to build R&D facilities and some additional office space in San Jose. The property isn't far from the future home of our new campus and we're looking forward to expanding our presence in the Bay Area."

In recent months, Apple has been purchasing large swathes of land around the Bay Area, primarily in North San Jose. Apple purchased a 296,000 square foot research and development building in May, it leased a 43-acre development site in August, and it leased a 202,000 square-foot office building in October. Much of the property may be turned into a massive 4.15 million square foot campus, according to talks Apple has had with San Jose city officials.

Apple has also purchased a 770,000 square foot campus in Sunnyvale and it has leased 76,000 square feet of office space in the popular South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood in San Francisco.

Popular Stories

iOS 18

Apple Expected to Release iOS 18.3 Next Week With These New Features

Thursday January 23, 2025 6:41 am PST by
iOS 18.3 should be released to the public next week, following beta testing since mid-December. While the software update is a relatively minor one, it still includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes for iPhones. Below, we recap everything new in iOS 18.3. Notification Summary Changes Examples of inaccurate Apple Intelligence notification summaries Apple Intelligence...
Apple Pay Walmart Feature

Walmart Stands Firm on Why It Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in the U.S.

Thursday January 23, 2025 7:32 am PST by
Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today. A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient...
iOS 18

5 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.3

Friday January 24, 2025 1:55 am PST by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.3 next week, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a couple of neat new capabilities to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices, and bug fixes. While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.3 still introduces capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've...
apple tv 4k new orange

New Apple TV Launching This Year With These New Features

Wednesday January 22, 2025 6:01 pm PST by
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year. In this article, we recap rumored features and changes for the device. The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, which would be an upgrade over the current Apple TV's standard Wi-Fi 6 support. Wi-Fi 6E extends the...
iOS 18

Here Are Apple's Full Release Notes for iOS 18.3

Tuesday January 21, 2025 4:31 pm PST by
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what's new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes. The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for iPhone 16 models, it tweaks Notification summaries on all...
Generic iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Beta Coming Soon With These New Features for Your iPhone

Friday January 24, 2025 8:16 am PST by
iOS 18.3 is expected to be widely released next week, and that means the first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner. Apple has previously implied that iOS 18.4 will be released in April, as that is when it promised to make Apple Intelligence available in even more languages. Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far. Apple Intelligence for Siri Siri ...
truecaller

Truecaller iOS Update Rolls Out Real-Time Caller ID Support

Wednesday January 22, 2025 2:07 am PST by
Popular caller ID app Truecaller is rolling out an update that brings real-time caller ID support to its iOS subscribers. Apple introduced Live Caller ID Lookup in iOS 18, allowing third-party caller ID apps to securely retrieve information about a caller from their servers, hence today's Truecaller update. iPhone users can enable the Live Caller ID Lookup feature by going to Settings ➝ ...
iPhone SE 4 Single Camera Thumb 3

iOS 18.3 Leak Provides Clue About iPhone SE 4, iPad 11, and iPad Air 7 Launch Timing

Wednesday January 22, 2025 9:39 am PST by
New information has surfaced that indicates the rumored iPhone SE 4, iPad 11, and new iPad Air models are nearing launch. A private account on social media platform X today revealed that iOS 18.3 or iPadOS 18.3 will be preinstalled on all of those upcoming devices when they are released. It is still unclear exactly when the devices will launch, but this information suggests that Apple will...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app. Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...

Top Rated Comments

samcraig Avatar
119 months ago
2020: Apple completes its purchase of California. Forms its own country.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rogifan Avatar
119 months ago
Apple is sure buying up a lot of real estate for a doomed™ company.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JeffyTheQuik Avatar
119 months ago
Been in that fab. It is a small one, so R&D would be a good use of the plant, but the land on 1st Street would be worth a lot.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iCloudStrife Avatar
119 months ago
"When asked about its recent acquisition of Io, the fourth-largest moon of Jupiter, a representative of Apple was quoted as saying: 'Apple buys smaller celestial bodies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.'"
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Junipr Avatar
119 months ago
Appleonia?
Prince?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rocketman Avatar
119 months ago
Apple just paid $18.2 million for a small 70,000 square foot silicon chip fab, formerly owned by Samsung

http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/12/14/apple-buys-former-maxim-chip-fab-in-north-san-jose-neighboring-samsung-semiconductor-

I wonder why Samsung sell it.
They didn't. In the very article you quoted it says:

"Maxim closed the "X3" facility in July. It had originally acquired the plant from Samsung back in 1997. It sits next to a new 10-story building now under construction by Samsung Semiconductor, and is surrounded by buildings used by Cisco and a variety of other network and semiconductor firms."

Apple bought it from Maxim not Samsung.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)