Apple Chip Supplier TSMC Celebrates Arizona Factory Nearing Completion
Apple chip supplier TSMC recently hosted a topping-out ceremony for its new fabrication plant in Phoenix, Arizona, DigiTimes reports.
TSMC's topping-out ceremony in Arizona The $12 billion factory will be the first of its kind to mass-produce 5nm chips in the United States. All of Apple's latest chips, dating back to the A14 Bionic and
M1 chip, are fabricated with a 5nm process. In a
post on LinkedIn, TSMC said:
Great progress continues on our 5-nanometer semiconductor fab – "FAB 21" – in #Phoenix, #Arizona. We recently celebrated placing the last beam – also known in the construction industry as a "topping" milestone - in FAB 21's fab building with our local partners. Over 4,000 attendees were on hand to enjoy this important moment including our own employees and partners. #TSMCArizona is on time and on track to bring the most advanced leading-edge semiconductor technology to the U.S.. We are deeply grateful to our partners and look forward to more successful milestones in Arizona.
Last year, TSMC Chairman Mark Liu announced that the company's Arizona plant will begin mass production in the first quarter of 2024. Likely clients for the chips made in the Arizona factory include Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Apple. The new Arizona plant will make it theoretically possible for Apple's 5nm custom silicon chips, to be manufactured within the United States for the first time.
Apple is rumored to move its custom silicon to a 3nm process starting with the M2 Pro or M3 chip. The iPhone 14 Pro's A16 chip is expected to continue being made with a 5nm process, so it is highly likely that Apple will still need a supply of 5nm chips from TSMC by early 2024 when the Arizona plant opens for mass-production.
TSMC's main factories are located in Taiwan, but it already operates a factory in Camas, Washington, as well as design centers in Austin, Texas and San Jose, California, meaning that the Arizona facility will be its second manufacturing site in the United States. Yesterday, it was reported that Apple is opening a new development site in Israel to develop future custom silicon chips for the Mac.
Popular Stories
Apple is set to release iOS 18.2 in December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. There are a handful of new non-AI related feature controls incoming as well.
...
We're officially in the month of Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 29 in 2024. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment,...
The first Geekbench 6 benchmark results for the M4 Pro chip surfaced today. Impressively, the results that are available so far show that the highest-end M4 Pro chip is faster than the highest-end M2 Ultra chip in terms of peak multi-core CPU performance.
Here is a comparison of the results:
Mac mini with M4 Pro (14-core CPU): 22,094 multi-core score (average of 11 results)
Mac Studio...
The iPhone SE 4 that's set to come out early next year is expected to debut Apple's first in-house 5G modem, according to Jeff Pu, an analyst who covers companies within Apple's supply chain.
In a research note this week with Hong Kong-based investment firm Haitong International Securities, Pu said Apple is expected to roll out its custom-made 5G modem starting with the next-generation...
With the second beta of iOS 18.2 that's available for developers today, Apple has further fleshed out the ChatGPT integration that's available with Siri. In the Settings app, there's now a section that shows the ChatGPT daily limit, and offers an option to upgrade to the paid ChatGPT Plus plan.
The beta includes an Advanced Capabilities section with a "Daily Limit" reading that shows up as...
Apple's new M4 Pro and M4 Max chips are impressively fast in terms of CPU performance, topping the M2 Ultra, but what about graphics performance?
The first Geekbench 6 results for GPU performance are now available for the M4 Pro and M4 Max, and the Metal scores reveal some impressive year-over-year gains. Based on the Metal scores that are available so far, the M4 Pro and M4 Max are up to...
After a busy October in which Apple announced new Macs and Apple Intelligence launched, the calendar has now turned to November. Below, we outline what to expect from Apple this month as the slower-but-still-busy holiday season approaches.
After seeding the first betas of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 with additional Apple Intelligence features last month, Apple will likely...