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Taiwan’s TSMC has reportedly begun production of 5nm semiconductor chips at its first plant in the US, possibly serving Apple’s orders for upcoming iPads and iPhones.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, better known as TSMC, has reportedly started producing mobile chipsets at its newly built manufacturing unit in Phoenix, Arizona. TSMC is the world’s largest contracted manufacturer of advanced semiconductor chips. Among the earliest customers for production at its plant in the US is believed to be Apple, which is said to be sourcing some of its older-gen chips from the Arizona factory.
Apple has recently unveiled the new A18 Pro chipset that powers the iPhone 16 Pro series. The A18 Pro is manufactured in TSMC’s manufacturing unit in its home country of Taiwan using the latest 3-nanometer N3E process. The Arizona factory, on the other hand, is supposedly being used to manufacture chips on an older N4P process that involves fabrication at a 5-nanometer scale, according to independent journalist Tim Culpan. The process is also mislabeled as 4nm despite being an advanced version of the 5nm process.
The 5nm process has previously been used to manufacture Apple A16 chipsets found in the iPhone 14 Pro line. The generation of chips might also power the iPad mini 7 and the 11th-Gen iPad, which are rumored to launch some time in October alongside the new M4 Macs.
Manufacturing at the Arizona plant is supposedly in the first phase of production, with “small, but significant, numbers” of chips rolling off the conveyor belt, Culpan says. This reportedly puts on track the plant to meet its production targets for the first half of 2025.
The report arrives barely 10 days after the Arizona plant was reported to have achieved the same yield as TSMC’s facility in Taiwan. At the time, the project was officially said to be “proceeding as planned with good progression,” though the company refrained from sharing specifics of yield rate.
The development can be seen as a positive sign for the project—and chip manufacturing prospects in the US, especially after previous reports of cultural differences between Taiwanese and American workers leading to unwarranted delays in production. The plant is notably part of TSMC’s plans to invest roughly $65 billion in three manufacturing facilities across the US. Out of this massive investment, the company will receive grants worth $6.6 billion from the US government as part of the CHIPS for America program and another $5 billion as a loan. The second factory is expected to start production by 2028.
