Apple may be planning to build its own ARM chips to power future iPhone and iPod handsets, if current insider rumors are to be believed.

According to the New York Times, the company may be working to develop an in-house chip based on the ARM architecture that Apple could fine-tune to work with the devices. Currently, the company is believed to use ARM chips powered by Samsung, according to current internal documents.

The report stems from the social networking profile of a key Apple engineer. Senior manager Wei-han Lien noted in a posting to his LinkedIn profile that he was overseeing an ARM architecture team for the iPhone that was currently at work. Lien joined Apple earlier this year when the company purchased chipmaker PA Semi for $278 million. At that time, chief executive Steve Jobs openly stated that the acquisition was made to build a new processor for the iPhone in-house to eliminate the need to outsource the electronics.

If true, Lien’s inadvertent leak would signal that Apple has settled on staying with the ARM architecture for future iPhone and iPod touch models. We’ll see what happens, but it appears Apple wants to take its destiny into its own hands.