Good Evening from Taipei,
TSMC’s first Arizona chips are now in production, and Apple is ready to be the first cab off the rank with mobile processors made using the foundry’s 5nm process.
Apple’s A16 SoC, which first debuted two years ago in the iPhone 14 Pro, is currently being manufactured at Phase 1 of TSMC’s Fab 21 in Arizona in small, but significant, numbers, my sources tell me. Volume will ramp up considerably when the second stage of the Phase 1 fab is completed and production is underway, putting the Arizona project on track to hit its target for production in the first-half of 2025.
These A16 chips are made with the same N4P process as TSMC uses for the A16 produced in Taiwan, I am told. Confusingly, N4P is sometimes called a 4nm node and sometimes 5nm, but it’s part of the broader 5nm family of processes — TSMC calls it an enhanced version of 5nm. Call it 4nm if you like, I won’t correct you.
“The Arizona project is proceeding as planned with good progress,” Nina Kao, a spokeswoman for TSMC told me. She declined to comment on clients or products made at the facility.
This is a BFD. TSMC Arizona is the marquee project of the US government’s $39 billion CHIPS for America Fund under the CHIPS Act. Six months ago, I thought Apple might tap Arizona for a less-consequential chip like the H-series used in AirPods. I was surprised when I heard it was the A16. The fact that they went for the most-advanced chip they could manage on US soil, in terms of both technology and volume, shows Apple and TSMC want to start big.
(I believe there may be other products also in production at TSMC Arizona, but I don’t have much information on them. If you do, contact me here.)
Currently TSMC is achieving yields in Arizona that are slightly behind what’s enjoyed back home in Taiwan (basically, neck and neck). Most important, though, is that improvements are moving so rapidly that true yield parity between Taiwan and Arizona is expected to be reached in coming months.
I can’t tell you which Apple device these A16 chips will go into. One possibility is that they’re slated for one of the upcoming iPads, though perhaps not the iPad Mini since Mark Gurman believes they’re to be launched around October. Another likelihood is the next iteration of the iPhone SE, which makes sense since it’s supposedly based on the iPhone 14 which uses the A16 processor and is expected next year.
Normally, media outlets will pad out their reportage with lots of background and history. I’ll leave it here. That’s the scoop: Apple’s A16 mobile processors are in production at TSMC on American soil, and that choice of product is hugely significant.
Note to media: yes, you can cite or sum this report. But proper credit is required with a link to this page (you know that I know the rules). Something like: “independent journalist Tim Culpan reported.” Thanks