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Last month, it was reported that Apple will be the first company to receive chips built based on TSMC’s 2nm process. The chips are expected to land in 2025 with the iPhone 17 series. Meanwhile, the latest reports suggest that Apple has already started designing chips based on the TSMC’s 2-nanometer process.
Some heavily redacted slides shared by the Korean website gamma0burst give valuable insights into Apple and Qualcomm’s upcoming chips. One of the slides reads, “TS5nm, TS3nm, working on TS2nm,” which can refer to the architecture of Apple chips from the past until now.
Apple has already begun designing chips based on TSMC’s 2nm process
Accordingly, Apple will rely on TSMC’s 2nm process for its future chips to be placed on iPhones. More likely the iPhone 17 series. TSMC began working on the 2nm process in 2019, and the chips are expected to be produced in a factory in hometown Taiwan.
Apple and TSMC have been business partners for a long time. And the Taiwanese company had provided the iPhone maker with its 5nm and 3nm chips before. Apple’s current M3 chip uses TSMC’s 3nm architecture. The collaboration is expected to continue into 2025 with 2nm chips.
Any decrease in nanometer count means transistors get smaller. Thus, there will be more space for more transistors, which will finally lead to a boost in performance and more efficient power consumption.
TSMC’s 2nm chips are scheduled for the second half of 2025. However, the company reportedly began working on 1.4nm chips for 2027. Apple is said to be the first company to benefit from TSMC’s 1.4nm and 1nm fabrication process. Apple’s adoption of 3nm technology brought 20% faster GPU speeds, 10% faster CPU speed, and a 2x faster Neural Engine to the iPhone and Macs.
Qualcomm also turns to TSMC for its future chips
The slides revealed by the Korean website also give data about Qualcomm’s upcoming chips. The Qualcomm XR series will use 3 and 4nm fabrication processes, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 uses TSMC N3E. Meanwhile, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 that powers future Galaxy phones relies on Samsung’s in-house SF2P process.