Apple To Be One Of TSMC’s First 2nm Customers, As Trial Production Said To Be Underway

Apple will take advantage of several TSMC 3nm chip variants in the coming years, including the N3B version, which will be utilized for the A17 Bionic, making it the world’s first 3nm SoC to be found in commercial devices. However, the California-based giant may also end up becoming one of the Taiwanese manufacturer’s first 2nm customers, as trial production is said to start soon.

TSMC’s 2nm wafers are still years away from going into mass production, with several 3nm versions yet to be utilized for future products

Apart from Apple, NVIDIA is another customer that will take advantage of TSMC’s 2nm process. No other client was mentioned in the report published by Commercial Times, suggesting that these two will be the only ones to receive the first 2nm shipments. As the chip giant commences its trial production run, it is said to send around 1,000 research and development personnel to a facility called ‘Fab 20’ that is under construction. The location of this facility is in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan.

Since Apple targets customers, this 2nm process will likely be used for future chipsets found in a variety of products, but since the company’s iPhone lineup is the biggest revenue generator, we are confident that the cutting-edge process will be used to mass produce a next-generation A-series SoC. On the other hand, NVIDIA caters to consumers and businesses, so while the report does not mention which product will be manufactured on the 2nm process, it may take a while for the GPU manufacturer to release GeForce graphics processors on this node.

Earlier, we reported that Apple had secured around 90 percent of TSMC’s 3nm supply, and given the company’s propensity to always have an edge in the market and the competition, it could be paying its supply chain partner a premium to get a hold of the initial shipments. There is also the possibility that the Cupertino tech behemoth switches to the more cost-effective N3E process for its A17 Bionic and M3 next year, so there is plenty of time before the first 2nm silicon is unveiled by the firm.