Apple chip supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will soon announce plans to build an advanced chip factory in Arizona in the USA.
The Wall Street Journal reports TSMC, which manufacturers the A-Series chips that power many of Apple’s devices, should announce the plans as soon as Friday after finalizing the decision during a board meeting on Tuesday. The factory could be in production as soon as the end of 2023.
The new TSMC plant would produce 5-nanometer chips, which are the fastest and most power-efficient chips available today, a person with knowledge of TSMC’s plans told The Wall Street Journal.
Apple’s 2020 iPhone handsets will be powered by TSMC-produced A14 chips, which will be produced using TSMC’s 5-nanometer technology. Production on those chips should begin sometime in the second quarter of 2020.
Details – such as whether or not TSMC will be getting financial incentives from the U.S. to build the factory in Arizona, or how many jobs the factory will create – are currently not known. However, a typical YSMC plant employs thousands of people.
TSMC has long been talking to Apple and U.S. officials about building a U.S. chip factory, and recently the talks were reported to have gained momentum due to concerns about the fragility of the Asian supply chain in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Via MacRumors)
