Apple’s A16 Bionic chips are now made in America by TSMC
TSMC’s first Arizona chips are now in production, and Apple is the first customer in production with A16 Bionic mobile processors made using the foundry’s 5nm process.
Apple’s A16 SoC, which first debuted two years ago in the iPhone 14 Pro, is currently being manufactured at Phase 1 of TSMC’s Fab 21 in Arizona in small, but significant, numbers, my sources tell me. Volume will ramp up considerably when the second stage of the Phase 1 fab is completed and production is underway, putting the Arizona project on track to hit its target for production in the first-half of 2025.
These A16 chips are made with the same N4P process as TSMC uses for the A16 produced in Taiwan, I am told. Confusingly, N4P is sometimes called a 4nm node and sometimes 5nm, but it’s part of the broader 5nm family of processes — TSMC calls it an enhanced version of 5nm. Call it 4nm if you like, I won’t correct you…
Six months ago, I thought Apple might tap Arizona for a less-consequential chip like the H-series used in AirPods. I was surprised when I heard it was the A16. The fact that they went for the most-advanced chip they could manage on US soil, in terms of both technology and volume, shows Apple and TSMC want to start big.
Currently TSMC is achieving yields in Arizona that are slightly behind what’s enjoyed back home in Taiwan (basically, neck and neck). Most important, though, is that improvements are moving so rapidly that true yield parity between Taiwan and Arizona is expected to be reached in coming months.
MacDailyNews Take: Huge news and good for the world in general that advanced chip production is being diversified outside of Taiwan.
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