Apple Silicon-supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) will hold a ceremony on December 29th to celebrate the start of mass production using its 3nm process.
Chang Chien-chung and Frances Huang for Focus Taiwan:
At the ceremony, TSMC will celebrate the placing of the last beam at the new facility — an event known as a “topping out” — for the launch of the 3nm process at Fab 18 located in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, Tainan. It will also detail plans to further expand 3nm production at the facility in the coming years. Currently, TSMC mass produces chips made using the 5nm process at Fab 18.
It is unusual for TSMC to hold a ceremony to mark the beginning of commercial production of a new technology. Market analysts speculate that the company is holding the ceremony to publicize its intention to keep using Taiwan as a hub for research, development and production, despite its overseas investments.
Suspicion has risen that TSMC could relocate its production and R&D efforts to the United States after the chipmaker said at a first tool-in ceremony for a 12-inch wafer plant in the U.S. state of Arizona on Dec. 6 that it would increase its planned US$12 billion investment in Arizona to US$40 billion to build not only a 4-nanometer fab scheduled to begin production in 2024 but also a 3nm fab scheduled to begin operations in 2026.
MacDailyNews Take: With Taiwan constantly under threat from Chinese Communist Party-controlled China, it makes perfect sense for TSMC to diversify points of production and not have it centralized in risky Taiwan.
With the move to 3nm, expect even crazier performance and even longer battery life from future Apple Silicon!
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