The best engineers and resources go to the US! TSMC starts chip production in the US: OEM for Apple A16
According to news on September 18, TSMC finally got production in the United States four years later, and it really became what everyone calls "TSMC".
According to the latest report from foreign media, TSMC's Phase 1 of Plant 21 in Arizona is producing "small but large quantities" of the A16 SoC for the iPhone 14 Pro. The current production is mainly a test of the factory, but more production is expected in the coming months.
Once the second phase of the first phase of the factory is actually completed, the output will increase significantly. If all goes according to plan, the Arizona factory will achieve its production target sometime in the first half of 2025.
It is said that the chips being manufactured use the same N4P process as TSMC's Taiwan factory to manufacture the A16. It is considered an enhanced version of the 5nm process, not 4nm production.
"The Arizona project is on schedule and progressing smoothly," said a TSMC spokesperson.
It is reported that TSMC's yield rate lags slightly behind that of the Taiwan factory. Flat production is expected to be achieved within a few months.
TSMC has received a lot of funding from the US government. In addition to the original $12 billion investment in 2020, TSMC received $6.6 billion in subsidies from the U.S. Department of Commerce as part of the CHIPS for America fund.
TSMC also increased its investment and plans to build three more factories in Arizona. The U.S. Department of Commerce previously said that this would create 6,000 direct manufacturing jobs and about 20,000 construction jobs.
