Apple's plan to create its own graphics chips has plunged shares of the company's British partner by 70%

The British company Imagination Technologies, which supplies graphics chips for the iPhone and iPad, said that Apple has notified it of its intention to abandon its technology within two years and develop its own chips. Against the backdrop of this message, shares of Imagination Technologies fell by almost 70%, writes The Financial Times .

Apple's plans could deal a serious blow to Imagination Technologies' business, since the partnership with Apple generates about half of the British company's total revenue. At the same time, Apple owns a stake in 8% of Imagination Technologies, and last year the FT wrote that Apple was in negotiations to buy the British company, but ultimately abandoned the deal.

It is worth noting that representatives of Imagination Technologies doubted the information received from Apple. Thus, the company's release states that Apple has not provided evidence confirming that it will not use Imagination technologies in its devices without violating the company's patents.

"Imagination believes that it would be extremely difficult to create a new GPU architecture from scratch without infringing on the company's intellectual property rights, and therefore Imagination does not accept Apple's application," the statement said.

With this in mind, The Verge does not rule out the possibility that Apple and Imagination Technologies may start a patent war in the foreseeable future. At the same time, representatives of Imagination Technologies announced their intention to discuss alternative cooperation options with Apple, so that the companies may be able to reach an agreement.

Imagination Technologies was founded in 1985 and went public in 1994. As a result of Apple's announcement, the British company's share price fell to its lowest level since the 2009 crisis.