Apple has secured nearly half of TSMC’s N2 (2nm) chip process, in preparation for the assembly and launch of its iPhone 18, which is still a long way to go. The Taiwanese foundry’s Baoshan and Kaohsiung plants are expected to achieve a monthly combined output of 100,000 wafers per month, next year.
According to DigiTimes, The TSMC Arizona plant, known as Fab21 P2, is also set to begin initial production soon. Once it comes online, it should bump up production to an average of 200,000 wafers per month by 2028.
Apple isn’t the only tech giant clamouring for TSMC chips. NVIDIA is another company that had secured its share of chips from the foundry, particularly for the N4 for its current generation Blackwell GPU architecture, and N3 for its future GPUs. Other giants, including AMD, MediaTek, Broadcom, and Intel, have also secured early production slots with TSMC, at an approximate price of US$30,000 (~RM126,749) per wafer.
The foundry’s roadmap shows that N2P and its A16 processes are scheduled to begin during the latter half of 2026, while its A14 process will kick off by 2028.
“On the other hand, the 4nm and 3nm processes will remain popular process nodes, with production capacity expected to be fully loaded until the end of 2026. This includes NVIDIA’s next-generation Rubin architecture GPU, which will also enter the 3nm generation with higher foundry prices,” DigiTimes wrote.
