12-13-2017NEWS

Apple invests $390 million into laser chipmaker Finisar

The company made the investment via its $1 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund, reports CNBC. Finisar makes some of the VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) chips found in the iPhone X and Apple’s AirPods wireless earbuds. VCSEL chips enable depth and proximity sensing and are among the critical tech used to enable Face ID, Animoji, and ARKit. […]

[Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Images/Getty Images]

BY Michael Grothaus

The company made the investment via its $1 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund, reports CNBC. Finisar makes some of the VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) chips found in the iPhone X and Apple’s AirPods wireless earbuds. VCSEL chips enable depth and proximity sensing and are among the critical tech used to enable Face ID, Animoji, and ARKit. Finisar will use Apple’s cash injection to transform a shuttered manufacturing plant in Texas into a VCSEL manufacturing facility and with it create 500 jobs.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Grothaus is a novelist and author. He has written for Fast Company since 2013, where he's interviewed some of the tech industry’s most prominent leaders and writes about everything from Apple and artificial intelligence to the effects of technology on individuals and society. More

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