For those who came in late Broadcom’s biggest customer for its wi-fi chips was the fruity cargo cult Apple.

The move follows Broadcom’s recent acquisition by Avago Technologies. It wants to allocate more resources for research and development in the fibre-optic and server sectors.

The Wi-Fi chip business is said to yield relatively low gross margins for Broadcom compared to other product lines, although that might be due to the wheeling and dealing nature of the Apple buying department.

Broadcom has halved its Taipei workforce. MediaTek, Realtek Semiconductor and RDA Microelectronics have already received a pull-in of short lead-time orders from Broadcom's customers in the Wi-Fi chip sector.

It is not clear where this will leave Apple's new Iphone 7 and which wi-fi it will use.