Apple Reportedly Due to Receive First Batch of "Made in USA" TSMC Chips

[T0@st]

The latest news reports suggest that Apple is currently verifying the quality of TSMC Arizona-made chips—the process has reached a "final test stage" with samples from an initial batch being compared to "Made in Taiwan" product. TSMC's native foundries—utilizing the latest cutting-edge technologies—are accustomed to pumping out plenty of high-quality and advanced chips. Nikkei Asia believes that an approval—if USA-made silicon passes muster—will result in commercial mass-produced chips being delivered as soon as Q1 2025. This would be a significant victory for TSMC's relatively new Arizona fab—reported teething problems have caused delays and budgets to balloon. Apple could be the first of TSMC's customers to send products to market that have Arizona-manufactured silicon onboard.

Taiwan's chip-making industry is facing an uncertain future due to regional political tensions—in reaction, the nation's government has started shifting its stance on guarding TSMC's most advanced production processes. Leading-edge process technologies could be heading overseas, with new investments being considered at the Arizona campus. TSMC and Amkor are working on setting up advanced packaging and test facilities at the Peoria location, so current logistics are not ideal—US-made product has to be sent to an Amkor packaging facility in Taiwan. TSMC USA's future looks quite promising—AMD and NVIDIA are reportedly the next in line to receive locally produced samples for verification. Industry moles reckon that Team Green's advanced "Blackwell" AI GPUs could be produced in Peoria—based on alleged partnership negotiations from late last year.



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[redeye]

So what.
I want my cpu in my iPhone made in Canada. Why can I not get my cpu made in Canada. answer I can’t, so a taiwanese CPU is good enough for me!

 

[Intervention]

This is very good news for TSMC. Looking at the regional tensions between Taiwan and mainland China, things do not look very good. In the name of "reunification" aka "we want access to advanced microchip manufacturing", were China to invade and actually take control of Taiwan, TSMC fabs are most likely going to be destroyed, rather than allow the Chinese Communist Party to take control of valuable intellectual property and machinery. This is just speculation, but I think this is the most likely, and strategic scenario. Thus the Arizona fab.

 

[bonehead123]

Congrats to TSMC for getting this plant up & running quickly !

I've heard rumors that they have installed underground escape tunnels in it's last few mainland plants, and has been setting up aerial surveillance, property boundary protective devices (similar to Claymore mines), and explosive boom boxes at strategical locations inside the plants, of which all are controlled from a central command center, so that if the Chinz do decide to invade, there won't be much left for them to take over, except for some scrape steel, concrete and a whole lot of toxic, contaminated piles of dirt