Apple COO Meets with TSMC CEO to Reserve First Batch of 2 nm Allocation

[btarunr]

Apple is locked in a fierce competition to stay ahead in the client AI applications race, and needs access to the latest foundry process at TSMC to built its future-generation SoCs on. The company's COO, Jeff Williams, reportedly paid a visit to TSMC CEO CC Wei to discuss Apple's foundry allocation of the Taiwanese foundry's 2 nm-class silicon fabrication process, for its next-generation M-series and A-series SoCs powering its future generations of iPhone, iPad, and Macs. Taiwan based industry observer, Economic Daily, which broke this story, says that it isn't just an edge with performance and efficiency that Apple is after, but also leadership in generative AI, and client AI applications. The company has reportedly invested over $100 billion in generative AI research and development over the past 5 years.

Apple's latest silicon, the M4 SoC, which debuted with the iPad Pro earlier this month, is built on TSMC's N3E (3 nm-class) node, and it's widely expected that the rest of the M4 line of SoCs for Macs, and the "A18," could be built on the same process, which would cover Apple for the rest of 2024, going into the first half of 2025. TSMC is expected to commence mass-production of chips on its 2 nm node in 2025, which is why Apple is in the TSMC boss's office to seek the first foundry allocation.



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[kondamin]

Would be better if they had invested 100billion in battery research over a period of 5 years instead of generative ai.

 

[Daven]

Even though we are probably past peak Apple, they still have enough demand to buy entire node capacities.

 

[mb194dc]

Still wondering what the use case is for Client side "AI". We're probably going to be deeply in to diminishing returns at these process nodes. The extra cost of the chips won't be worth it at all for most use cases, older chips which cost a fraction will do the job fine.

Apple are still insanely profitable, have the strongest phone brand and their enclosed proprietary tech environment that allows them to milk users who don't know any better for $$$. Even if they're not growing anymore. It's still the least overvalued of the big stocks imo due to that.

 

[Metroid]

Still wondering what the use case is for Client side "AI". We're probably going to be deeply in to diminishing returns at these process nodes. The extra cost of the chips won't be worth it at all for most use cases, older chips which cost a fraction will do the job fine.

Apple are still insanely profitable, have the strongest phone brand and their enclosed proprietary tech environment that allows them to milk users who don't know any better for $$$. Even if they're not growing anymore. It's still the least overvalued of the big stocks imo due to that.

Idiots must first stop buying 1k usd iphones to browser the web and use whatsapp and yeah a 50 usd phone will do that. It is not about use anymore, is about showing off that stupidity has no limits.

 

[Prima.Vera]

2nm CPU for the latest iPhone 16, that looks and feels identical to the iPhone 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

 

[chrcoluk]

Would be better if they had invested 100billion in battery research over a period of 5 years instead of generative ai.

In software battery management as well.

Not apple, but on my old one plus 6, I have been still leaving it powered on unused, and I noticed with wifi and mobile data off, its drain was still mediocre, I thought not much of it as just assumed its an old creaking battery. I then uninstalled these apps, as I didnt want them conflicting with any live devices.

Amazon
BBC sport
Discord
Telegram
Whatsapp

Thats it nothing else, charge duration went from around 3 days to 9-10 days. In addition the phone previously had problems with memory management, shutting down apps frequently, even launcher getting forcefully restarted and that all vanished, these few apps must have been constantly running crap in the background even without networking. I wonder how many buy a new phone thinking issues are hardware related but instead its down to rogue software.

This AI stuff will just be more stuff running in the background.

 

[bonehead123]

Apple are still insanely profitable, have the strongest phone brand and their enclosed proprietary tech environment that allows them to milk users who don't know any better for $$$. Even if they're not growing anymore. It's still the least overvalued of the big stocks imo due to that.

Yes they are for sure, as evidenced by my dividend checks, which BTW have been rather large (and getting larger) for the past several years, so they can spend their gazillions on new chips or whatever else they want, as long that moolah keeps comin my way, I won't be complainin

And no, I am NOT an Apple fanboi/user, just a very happy investor !

@chrcoluk - re: battery issues

I recently got a Pixel 8 Pro and from day 1, I was constantly running low on battery power even with light use throughout the day...

Then I discovered the cause (or at least part of it): It shipped direct from Gooogly with every single installed app (alot of bloatwarez) running at 100% power capability, all permissions enabled and ZERO optimizations whatsoever.......

So I spent the better part of a day going through EVERY single installed app, and deleted/uninstalled/disabled everything I didn't need/want etc....and whahlah, now it runs all day long with lots of calls, texts, teams meetings, videos, email & surfin, and usually has ~65% left when I plug it in at bedtime

So yea, software battery use/mgmt is the key IMHO

 

[Caring1]

If they keep shrinking the nodes, they will end up moving into the negative and be using anti-matter

 

[64K]

Doesn't Apple always enjoy Preferred Customer status with TSMC? I think that is true but I could be wrong. Apple needs chips and a heck of a lot of them. Last year their revenue was around 380 billion USD. They dwarf all of the competition.

 

[mb194dc]

Yes they are for sure, as evidenced by my dividend checks, which BTW have been rather large (and getting larger) for the past several years, so they can spend their gazillions on new chips or whatever else they want, as long that moolah keeps comin my way, I won't be complainin

And no, I am NOT an Apple fanboi/user, just a very happy investor !

@chrcoluk - re: battery issues

I recently got a Pixel 8 Pro and from day 1, I was constantly running low on battery power even with light use throughout the day...

Then I discovered the cause (or at least part of it): It shipped direct from Gooogly with every single installed app (alot of bloatwarez) running at 100% power capability, all permissions enabled and ZERO optimizations whatsoever.......

So I spent the better part of a day going through EVERY single installed app, and deleted/uninstalled/disabled everything I didn't need/want etc....and whahlah, now it runs all day long with lots of calls, texts, teams meetings, videos, email & surfin, and usually has ~65% left when I plug it in at bedtime

So yea, software battery use/mgmt is the key IMHO

I'm using a Pixel 4, broke the screen on holiday earlier this year, looked at a new screen, then realised I could just get a new phone for £80. It does everything I need, I owned one before this as well from 2020, easy to change the battery if I need to. Could root it if I could be bothered. No bloat, no battery drain issues for me on stock Android though.

My guess is Apple will suffer, as they are already in China and other markets recently. In a bad economy, people probably realise more they don't need a 1K phone. That being said, I'm sure they'll still make plenty of money.

 

[Onasi]

Doesn't Apple always enjoy Preferred Customer status with TSMC? I think that is true but I could be wrong. Apple needs chips and a heck of a lot of them. Last year their revenue was around 380 billion USD. They dwarf all of the competition.

Yeah, they always did and traditionally got first dibs on any new node. This isn’t news, there is nothing to discuss. It’s a win-win for both sides since what Apple needs is capacity and what TSMC needs is ironing out kinks in new nodes and the massive orders of relatively small and low power chips for Apple are perfect for it. They wouldn’t start off with massive at-reticle-limit chips for NVidia, for example, that’s just asking for trouble.

 

[Prima.Vera]

If they keep shrinking the nodes, they will end up moving into the negative and be using anti-matter

They don't shrink anything. Just their Marketing shrinking the numbers as they see fit. At this point they can claim 2pm, but it wont be pm from picometer. Just a meaningless number and some letters to confuse the press.

 

[remixedcat]

Even though we are probably past peak Apple, they still have enough demand to buy entire node capacities.

gotta get those to the ipad babies so they don't have any interruptions watching cocomelon or blippi or bluey lmao or they will have a meltdown in the middle of the restaurant and mom will get very angwyyy