Bloomberg: Apple will use its modems in 2027 iPhones

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports Apple will use its own modems in every 2027 iPhone, replacing Qualcomm chips even in the US iPhone 18 Pro Max.

Gurman made the prediction in his Power On newsletter, saying development delays and contractual obligations kept Qualcomm in some models this year. A TechInsights teardown confirmed the US iPhone 18 Pro Max uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon X80.

Qualcomm announced on September 24, 2026 that it had renewed a global patent license with Apple covering patents and royalties rather than modem supply. Gurman reads the deal as Qualcomm asserting that Apple's modems use some of its patents, with both companies choosing a license over another court fight.

John Han, executive vice president and general manager of Qualcomm Technology Licensing, said in the press release, "We are pleased to extend the Apple license agreement." Neither company disclosed how long the deal runs or how much Apple will pay.

The continued payments reflect two separate contracts: a supply deal for modem hardware and a patent license for inventions embedded in the 5G standard, which Qualcomm licenses to phone makers regardless of which modem is used. The companies litigated these issues before settling in 2019.

Apple says its C2 modem now supports mmWave in the US, consumes 15 percent less energy than the C1X, and already powers the smaller iPhone 18 Pro. mmWave was the primary reason US Pro models retained Qualcomm modems this year.

Ookla's analysis of Q4 2025 data found the iPhone Air's C1X matched Qualcomm's X80 on download speeds and beat it on latency in 19 of 22 markets, while the X80 held up to a 32 percent lead on uploads. Bloomberg notes that after tens of billions of dollars and roughly eight years of development, Apple's modems have only just closed much of the gap.

If Gurman's reporting is correct, US buyers of the iPhone 18 Pro Max will likely trade Qualcomm's X80 for Apple's modem in 2027. Outside the US and on the smaller iPhone 18 Pro, Apple already uses the C2, so the change should be limited to the largest US Pro model.

Based on current C2 specifications, the switch should preserve mmWave support and yield modest battery improvements, with upload performance the key metric to monitor when independent reviews appear. Neither Apple nor Qualcomm has released the license term or the financial terms of the renewal.