According to reports, Apple plans to rely less on Asia for its chip needs and instead look to the US and Europe.
CEO Tim Cook stated that Cupertino has already made the decision to purchase the Arizona-based TSMC plant, which is scheduled to begin operations sometime in 2024.
According to Bloomberg, Cook made his comments during an internal gathering in Germany with regional engineering and retail staff as part of a recent European visit.
“We’ve already made a decision to be buying out of a plant in Arizona, and this plant in Arizona starts up in ’24, so we’ve got about two years ahead of us on that one, maybe a little less,” Cook said. “And in Europe, I’m sure that we will also source from Europe as those plans become more apparent.”
Additionally, Intel is constructing two cutting-edge semiconductor fabs in Arizona that will be fully operational by 2024. However, Apple famously opted not to employ Intel CPUs in its Macs in favor of its own SoCs.
Since Apple is TSMC’s largest customer and made up 25% of the company’s total revenue in December of last year, it frequently receives the newest cutting-edge chips first.
According to recent rumors, Apple reluctantly accepted the manufacturer’s pricing increases that will take effect in 2023.
However, the escalating hostilities between China and Taiwan have alarmed western businesses that depend on TSMC for their semiconductor needs.
Particularly after a leading economist in China advised China to take control of TSMC if the US tightened sanctions against the Asian country, something the Biden administration has been pursuing more forcefully lately.
Apple plans to adopt the N3 (3nm-class) fab technology, which is exclusively available at the Taiwan facilities, for the iPhone 15 that will be released in the following year.
With a capacity of 20,000 chips per month, the Arizona facility will initially produce chips using the 5nm production nodes, which Apple may use for some of its other devices.
However, we have learned that TSMC intends to eventually relocate 3nm production to the US.
Apple will continue to source its most recent hardware from the company’s Taiwan plants until then.
To read our blog on “TSMC is working toward 1nm and hopes to move 3nm chips production in US,” click here.
