Apple has already booked 3nm chip production from TSMC for future iPhone, Mac and iPad models. Apple leads the chip industry in terms of lithography, as it was the first company to launch a 5nm chipset A14 Bionic. A new report claims that Apple wants to be one step ahead of the competition, which is why it has booked all of TSMC’s 3nm production.
A previous report revealed that Apple has booked 80 percent of TSMC’s 5nm orders for 2021. Now UDN states that the Cupertino-tech giant has gone one step ahead of the competition and placed orders for 3nm chips too. However, we’re likely to see the new chips for the iPhone, Mac, and iPad arrive in 2022, so there’s a lot of time to see what this silicon can do.
TSMC’s trial production is going according to plan, with around 600,000 processors expected to be produced annually, making it 50,000 per month. Mass production could start in 2022, but there’s a catch. With the amount of investment TSMC has made to produce 3nm chips for various clients, including Apple, UDN mentions that the company will need to sell a minimum of 300 million processors to make a profit.
It’s not confirmed how many overall orders Apple intends on securing with TSMC. But since it involves it’s iPhone we believe it should be millions of 3nm chips.