Kuo: iPhone 18 Models Will Feature 2nm Chips

Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today reiterated that the A20 chip in iPhone 18 models will be manufactured with TSMC's 2nm process.

a20 chip feature
Kuo said TSMC's trial production of 2nm chips has now reached yields well above the 60-70% range. The yield refers to the percentage of functional chips that can be obtained per silicon wafer, which is essentially a large, circular disc of chips.

Kuo first said that the A20 chip would be 2nm around six months ago, and another analyst Jeff Pu said likewise earlier this week.

An earlier rumor saying the A20 chip would remain 3nm was retracted.

This is ultimately good news, as the A20 chip being 2nm instead of 3nm means it will have more substantial performance and power efficiency improvements over the A19 chip for iPhone 17 models. Kuo, Pu, and others have all said that the A19 chip will be manufactured with TSMC's third-generation 3nm process, called N3P.

The move from a 3nm to 2nm process allows for more transistors in each chip, which helps to boost performance. Specifically, reports indicate that A20 chips should be up to 15% faster and up to 30% more power efficient than A19 chips.

An overview of current and expected chips:

  • A17 Pro chip: 3nm (TSMC's first-generation 3nm process N3B)
  • A18 and A18 Pro chips: 3nm (TSMC's second-generation 3nm process N3E)
  • A19 and A19 Pro chips: 3nm (TSMC's third-generation 3m process N3P)
  • A20 and A20 Pro chips: 2nm (TSMC's first-generation 2nm process N2)

Keep in mind that these nanometer sizes are simply TSMC marketing terms, rather than actual measurements.

iPhone 18 models are still a year and a half away from launching.

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Top Rated Comments

Rodney Williams Avatar
4 weeks ago
I don't really care about all this talk about the potential performance of the A20 chip. Just fix the software of all these hiccups and bugs that seems to be plaguing the Apple products for past few years of iOS, macOS and iPadOS. Just fix the damn software. Period. What good is the chip if the software is garbage?
Score: 46 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vegetassj4 Avatar
4 weeks ago
Moars Law: the observation that the number of bugs in iOS is exponentially and inversely proportionate to the nm process of Apple's chips
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Arm64MyMac Avatar
4 weeks ago
“TSMC marketing terms, rather than actual measurements.“

If 2nm doesn’t mean 2nm and 3nm doesn’t mean 3nm, what’s the point of these terms? How can anyone then derive any power efficiency from this?
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
t0rqx Avatar
4 weeks ago
Cancelled my iPhone 15 preorder 2 years ago.

Cancelled my iPhone 16 preorder last year.

Cancelling my iPhone 17 this year.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joe Rossignol Avatar
4 weeks ago

Of course, this will be an 100% thing
Sometimes the obvious news still needs to be reported on, and then someone will make a comment saying it is obvious, and then life carries on.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joe Rossignol Avatar
4 weeks ago

Agree, but here, there were some rumours that this will not be the case and it will be on N3P/3nm...and that was strange since Apple usually lock their new TSMC architecture for an entire year
Correct, because investment firm GF Securities put out a research note stating the following: "Apple’s A20 chip in 2026 will remain on the N3P node (leveraging CoW packaging to enhance AI capabilities) rather than migrating to N2, contrary to earlier rumors."

So we relayed the information accordingly.

However, I later spoke with GF Securities' lead Apple analyst Jeff Pu, who said to disregard this information about the A20 chip remaining N3P. That information was shared by another analyst at the firm, and Pu follows Apple more closely and confirmed that A20 will indeed be N2.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)