TSMC office sign – Image Credit: TSMC
TSMC’s chip foundry in Arizona is not just making one Apple chip, as a second Apple design is reportedly now in production at the facility.
In September, TSMC finally started to produce chips at its Arizona foundry, which had been under construction since 2020. Four months later, the facility is seemingly expanding its capabilities.
According to sources of Tim Culpan, TSMC Arizona is producing its second Apple product. It’s reportedly manufacturing SiPs (Systems in package) for the Apple Watch.
While it is unclear exactly what SiP is under production at the facility, it is believed to be the S9, as used in the Apple Watch Series 9.
As TSMC Arizona is manufacturing under an N4 four-nanometer process to make the A16 chip already, and the S9 is derived from the A16, it makes sense for this SiP to be made at the same facility.
Apple isn’t the only client having chips made at the Arizona facility. Culpan claims that AMD is producing the Ryzen 9000 at the plant, a product AMD released in 2024.
While TSMC does not say how many processors are on each wafer it produces, the facility is currently making 10,000 wafers per month, for the three chips in total. That’s said to be Phase 1A and when Phase 1B completes, the total capacity of the facility will rise to about 24,000 wafers per month.
It’s hard to determine how many Apple chips the facility produces, but wafer counts are a pretty good indicator. Each wafer, typically measuring 12 inches, can be used to make hundreds of chips at least, depending on the size of each chip, their design, production processes, and yield rates.
For example, in April 2023, TSMC was reported to start increasing production of A17 and M3 processors on an M3 3-nanometer node, using a die size in the 100-110mm range. In that particular instance, there was an approximate yield of 620 chips per wafer.
This Phase 1B is anticipated for the first quarter of 2025, but Culpan says that Phase 1B is facing tooling delays, which could be a bottleneck for the project until it is resolved. Even so, it is believed to be still on schedule.
The success of the project is an important one for TSMC due to its original investment of $12 billion. Since then, it has gained a $6.6 billion subsidy from the U.S. Commerce Department as part of the CHIPS for America Fund, as well as more investment from TSMC directly.
Three plants are expected to be constructed in Arizona in total, which can create up to 20,000 construction jobs and 6,000 manufacturing jobs.
