Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo on Saturday reiterated his six-month-old prediction that the A20 chip in iPhone 18 models will be manufactured with TSMC’s 2nm process.
Reiterating my prediction from six months ago: the 2H26 new iPhones (iPhone 18) will be powered by TSMC’s 2nm chips.
Worth noting, TSMC’s 2nm R&D trial yields reached 60–70% three months ago, and they’re now well above that. https://t.co/ZoWXFqfUnS
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) March 22, 2025
Kuo noted that TSMC’s 2nm process trial yields reached 60–70% three months ago, and they’re now well above that. The yield is the percentage of functional chips that can be harvested from each silicon wafer, which is essentially a large, circular disc of chips.
By using the 2nm process in place of the 3nm process, the chips should prove to have more substantial performance and power efficiency improvements over the A19 chip for iPhone 17 models, which will likely be fabricated using TSMC’s third-generation 3nm process, called N3P.
Moving from the 3nm to the 2nm process allows for more transistors in each chip, boosting performance and offering better power efficiency.
