Lots of chips...
As I recall, there are THREE (3) chips in the plug of the Lightning cable, plus various other components. A lot goes on in there, apparently - dynamic pin reassignment and all that. I had a knockoff cable burn my fingers once - and the plug part turned brown and smoked. Once burned, and all that. So yes, I get my cables from the Apple store now, even at the premium price.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
