Apple slated to use one third of TSMC’s advanced chips made in Arizona plant

American customers such as Apple pushed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to offer advanced 4-nanometer chips when its new $12 billion plant in Arizona opens in 2024, an upgrade from its previous public statements, Bloomberg News reports Thursday citing “people familiar with the matter.”

Ian King, Mark Gurman, and Debby Wu for Bloomberg News:

The TSMC factory had been slated to make 5-nanometer semiconductors, a standard that will be far from the cutting edge by 2024. The Taiwanese company also will commit to adding a second nearby plant, which will make even more advanced, 3-nanometer chips, they said.

TSMC previously said it would make 20,000 wafers per month at the Arizona facility, although production may increase from those original plans, the people said. Apple will use about a third of the output as production gets underway.

Apple and other major tech companies rely on TSMC for their chipmaking needs, and the change means they’ll be able to get more of their processors from the US.

The possibility of China taking over Taiwan also has sparked concerns about relying on that region for so much of the semiconductor industry’s current supply. TSMC, headquartered on the island, is the world’s go-to supplier for chips powering everything from smartphones to electric vehicles. Most of its production is still centralized in Taiwan.

MacDailyNews Note: Last month, TSMC’s founder Morris Chang confirmed that it’s planning to produce chips with advanced 3nm technology at its new factory in Arizona.

Chang said the 3nm plant would be located at the same Arizona site as the 5nm plant. “Three-nanometer, TSMC right now has a plan, but it has not been completely finalized,” said Chang. “It has almost been finalized – in the same Arizona site, phase two. Five-nanometer is phase one, 3-nanometer is phase two.”

In September, Nikkei Asia reported that Apple’s next-gen M3 and A17 chips will be first to employ TSMC’s cutting-edge 3nm tech.

Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!

Shop The Apple Store at Amazon.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]