Apple’s journey towards self-sufficiency in silicon has been proceeding in fits and starts for 15 years but is accelerating and has taken a major leap forward with the announcement the company is building a €1bn European Center for Chip Design in Munich, Germany over the next three years. This will become Apple’s largest semiconductor facility in Europe’s and the continent’s biggest dedicated to wireless. Occupying 30,000 square meters and hosting its silicon engineering teams it is the latest in a series of moves geared towards ending Apple’s dependence for mobile chipsets on Qualcomm, with which it has shared a tempestuous and litigious relationship over the last few years. Qualcomm does still hold a few aces in its ownership of key…