It’s been nearly five years in the making, but an Arizona plant is finally on the cusp of beginning mass production of Apple’s first silicon to be entirely fabricated in the US, according to a new report by Nikkei Asia.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) first announced its plans to build an “advanced semiconductor manufacturing fabrication” facility in Arizona in early 2020, committing to a $12 billion investment in Phoenix that it later increased to a staggering $40 billion when it committed to a second facility in the state.
TSMC acquired 1,129 acres of land for the first facility in December 2020 and broke ground in April 2021, finishing it in late 2022 as the first equipment arrived. It continued its expansion throughout 2023 with plans for the second facility, creating more than 1,600 high-tech jobs and thousands of additional jobs indirectly in the semiconductor industry.
While the initial facility was focused on 5-nanometer production for non-Apple chips, it brought the quasi-4mm N4P process used for Apple’s A16 online last summer and began production of trial runs of A16 chips, with plans to ramp up into full production in early 2025.
The move straight into a high-profile A-series chip surprised many industry watchers, who had expected Apple would go with something less ambitious, like an H-series chip used in its AirPods. However, the A16 also seemed like a reasonable way to test the waters since the chip is only used in the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus — two products that Apple still sells that are no longer part of its mainstream product lineup.
While the original A16 announcement led to speculation that Apple might be planning to use the A16 in an upcoming iPad or the next-generation iPhone SE, neither seems likely in an era of Apple Intelligence, which requires at least an A17 Pro or M-series chip. This was seemingly confirmed when the iPad mini 7 launched a few weeks later with an A17 Pro, and by all reports, the new 11th-generation iPad will use either that same chip or the M1 previously used in Apple’s 2022-era iPad Air and early Apple Silicon Macs.
Still, with the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus likely to remain on sale until late 2026, it stands to reason that Apple still needs to crank out A16 chips, and making those in Arizona is a great low-risk way to bring some of its chip manufacturing to the US.
However, with the N4P process up and running, TSMC is reportedly also poised to begin producing S9 chips. That’s not too much of a stretch since these use the same fabrication process as the A16, but it raises the question of how many of these Apple needs. The only current product that uses the S9 is the Apple Watch Ultra 2 from 2023; the Apple Watch Series 9 also used it, but that’s no longer being manufactured, and the Apple Watch Series 10 has moved onto the S10 which has the same underlying architecture but uses a different packaging process.
However, even an S10 would be a short-lived run as the Apple Watch Series 11 and Ultra 3 that are due later this year will almost certainly go to a newer S11 chip. We’re expecting an Apple Watch SE this year, which could stay one year behind on the S10, as the original SE did, but the Apple Watch SE 2 had virtually the same S8 chip as the Series 8 and original Ultra.
This means the most likely candidate for new S9 chips isn’t an Apple Watch, but rather something else that’s moved to Apple’s S-series chips: the HomePod. Apple is expected to release a new “HomePod mini 2” this year, and if it follows tradition, that smart speaker will likely adopt the S9 chip, following in the footsteps of the 2020 HomePod mini that used the 2019 S5 chip and the second-generation HomePod which went with the 2021 S7.
According to the Nikkei report, the Arizona plant is now ready to kick the production of at least some of these chips into high gear, with the “first batch of commercial mass-produced chips” expected to be ready in the next few weeks. TSMC is said to merely be waiting for Apple’s final blessing before cranking up the production lines.
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Publish date : 2025-01-14 07:30:00
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