TSMC's impending Arizona chip plant is expected to be up and running in the next couple of years, but don't expect any iPhones to use parts made by it. At least not for a little while yet.
According to a new report, SMC's new factory won't have the capacity to build chips for Apple's most popular product. Instead, it's thought that chips coming out of Arizona will find their way into less important products, including Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple TV devices.
Made in the USA
Apple will no doubt make plenty of noise about the ability to build some of its chips in the United States over the next couple of years, with Bloomberg noting that it's already doing so. CEO Tim Cook reportedly told employees in Germany that the company "already made a decision to be buying out of a plant in Arizona, and this plant in Arizona starts up in '24." And while Cook stopped short of naming names, TSMC is the one everyone expects he was talking about.
However, Bloomberg notes that the new Arizona TSMC plant will only be able to produce around 20,000 wafers of silicon chips per month. And that isn't enough to dent Apple's requirements. For comparison's sake, TSMC currently builds 1.3 million wafers every month — the Arizona plant will make up less than 1.6% of the company's global wafer production.
Instead, the report believes that Apple's other products will get the "Made in the USA' treatment. "More likely it'll get orders for a couple of key chips used in lesser devices like AirPods, TV, HomePod or Watch," the report says.
It will be some time before TSMC can build chips for Apple's best iPhones in the United States, but at least some manufacturing will be on its home turf by the time that factory comes online.
