Apple executives in secret talks with TSMC over 2nm chip supply

By Li Jilin

It has been reported that Apple's Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams met secretly with CC Wei, CEO of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), a major Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer, to secure initial production capacity for TSMC's 2nm process.

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https://money.udn.com/money/story/5612/7974714

Apple COO Reportedly Attends Secret Meeting with TSMC to Reserve First Batch of 2-nanometer Production | Tom's Hardware
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/apple-coo-reportedly-attends-secret-meetings-with-tsmc-to-reserve-first-batch-of-2-nanometer-production

Apple is reportedly planning to enter the AI server market by developing its own AI chips and running AI processing on data center servers. These servers would handle AI tasks that are too complex to process on devices like the iPhone and iPad.

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Additionally, iOS 18, scheduled for release this fall, is rumored to make extensive use of AI models and is expected to run AI locally on devices such as iPhones and iPads.

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At the time of writing, Apple also uses third-party data centers, but Luca Maestri, Apple's CFO, acknowledged that Apple has its own data centers that it can use for AI purposes, and that the company has invested more than $100 billion in generative AI research and development over the past five years.

It has been pointed out that TSMC's 2nm process may be used for the proprietary chips used in this data center. If Apple secures the initial production capacity of TSMC's 2nm process, TSMC's annual sales could reach a record high of NT$600 billion (approximately 2.9 trillion yen), and in the long term, TSMC's annual sales could reach NT$1 trillion (approximately 4.8 trillion yen).

Apple has already adopted TSMC's 3nm process for the M4 in its iPad Pro (2024) , which integrates a more powerful Neural Engine (NPU) than previous generations.

To further improve its AI capabilities, Apple plans to develop three additional versions of the M4. The additional versions of the M4 chip are codenamed 'Donan,' 'Brava,' and 'Hydra,' and are expected to offer higher AI processing power. These new versions of the M4 are reportedly due to enter mass production in the second half of 2024.