Earlier this 12 months, Apple’s chipmaking companion, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Firm (TSMC), started mass manufacturing of Apple’s first made-in-America chips, a transfer that culminated 5 years of planning and building of a brand new facility in Arizona. Now, TSMC is accelerating the development of two further US vegetation to supply much more Apple silicon.
In 2020, TSMC dedicated to a $12 billion funding in Phoenix to construct an “superior semiconductor manufacturing fabrication” facility. That quantity later elevated to a staggering $40 billion when it dedicated to a second facility within the state.
After buying 1,129 acres of land in late 2020, TSMC broke floor for the primary plant in April 2021 and completed it in late 2022. In 2023, it continued with plans for the second facility and commenced making ready to construct a 3rd not lengthy after.
TSMC’s first plant was initially targeted on fabricating 5-nanometer chips for merchandise apart from Apple’s, however by the center of 2024, it had introduced the quasi-4nm N4P course of on-line for the A16 chips used within the iPhone 14 Professional and iPhone 15 fashions.
Whereas this appeared like an odd alternative, because the iPhone 14 Professional had already been discontinued and the iPhone 15 was already final 12 months’s information, the strategy to Apple’s insanity turned obvious not lengthy after the A16 fabrication line got here on-line in January, when Apple stunned everybody with a 2025 iPad that featured the A16 chip. Apple can be reportedly producing S9 chips on the Arizona facility, which is at the moment solely used within the Apple Watch Extremely 2, however may be utilized in a brand new HomePod mini later this 12 months.
However, all of Apple’s flagship chips, just like the A18 collection and the whole lot that begins with the letter “M,” are nonetheless fabricated at TSMC’s significantly extra superior services in Taiwan. Nonetheless, which may change, as Nikkei Asia experiences that TSMC is dashing up the development plans for its subsequent two services by “a number of quarters.”
This follows a March announcement that the Taiwanese firm plans to construct 5 new factories within the US, three of which might be new chip fabrication vegetation, though it’s unclear if these are along with the 2 which can be already within the works. TSMC additionally plans two superior packaging services and a significant analysis and improvement heart.
These two packaging services are essential to a totally US-integrated manufacturing pipeline. Fabrication is barely a part of the method, because it solely handles the uncooked silicon manufacturing. Till these two new services are prepared, it’s essential to ship the US-made chips again to Taiwanese vegetation to be packaged into their closing kind.
Which may be partly why TSMC is ramping issues up, nevertheless it feels like the 2 fabrication vegetation are nonetheless the precedence, as demand will increase for extra superior chips that may’t but be fabricated domestically.
“After completion, round 30% of our 2-nanometer and extra superior [chip] capability might be positioned in Arizona,” TSMC Chairman and CEO C.C. Wei advised traders and reporters, “creating an impartial, modern semiconductor manufacturing cluster within the US.” The objective, Wei says, is to satisfy the demand for smartphone and AI computing chips with US-based manufacturing.
To place this into perspective, TSMC is already fabricating 2-nanometer chips at its services in Taiwan. That functionality isn’t anticipated to reach within the US till the corporate finishes its third plant, which broke floor in April and wasn’t initially anticipated to be prepared till 2030. That places the US services 5 years behind these in Taiwan. Nonetheless, quicker funding might shave a few years off that, which might permit modern Apple silicon to be made within the US by the point the iPhone 21 arrives.
However, Apple will nonetheless have to supply chips from TSMC’s Taiwan services for a number of extra years. The A18 and A18 Professional already make the most of a 3-nanometer course of, which gained’t be operational within the US till the second facility is accomplished. That’s anticipated in 2028, and even with TSMC’s promise to speed up that by “a number of quarters,” it seemingly gained’t be prepared earlier than late 2026 or early 2027. By that point, Apple will seemingly be utilizing a 2-nanometer course of for the A20 chips in its iPhone 18 fashions.