Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Sounds like we’re inching closer to no longer relying on TSMC in Taiwan. Must be pretty convinced China is going to invade soon. 2027?
Have you figured out yet which customer cares the most about not getting chips of China invades Taiwan? Should be easy to figure out.
 
It's going to be a VERY long time before US companies no longer rely on TSMC. They have 61% to 64.9% of the global market.
That’s why the huge plant in Arizona was built and why Intel is rapidly building new fabs for 4nm and better tech. Samsung is also massive
 
Fantastic news. I drove by the TSMC PHX/Anthem campus a few weeks ago and it is enormous. The Fab 21 plant is the training wheels version of production until they're ready to go with the more advanced nodes. TSMC plans to build 2 nm chips at its next two fabs on site. It's a bit different from seeing the old fabs in Silicon Valley, which were often carved out from 40 acres of orchards.
I remember when it was desert. My apartment was just to the southeast along the 17. Now that whole area is booming.
 
ONLY if it can be sold at the same price point. Otherwise...
100%

Americans want “cheap” and “American made”. Problem is those two things are mutual exclusive and incompatible.

And before someone comes on here and says they’ll pay $2000 for a base model iPhone, I’ll ask them how someone could possibly pay for that when the federal minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour?
 
That’s why the huge plant in Arizona was built and why Intel is rapidly building new fabs for 4nm and better tech. Samsung is also massive
Too bad Intel’s product has trash performance.

That’s what I’m afraid of if tariffs get out of control. We’d be forced to use worse performing tech because it’s cheaper than good performing foreign tech.
 
I don’t see how those chips will be much more expensive produced locally then overseas. I suppose the plant will also be heavily automated and the labor costs of Taiwan isn’t that far off the labor costs domestically.

It's not the chips but assembly costs. Until that can be automated the labor costs would be prohibitive, assuming you could get the needed amount and quality, in the US or Europe.

The US, for example, does do manufacturing but not of the type used for electronics, it houses teh largest BMW manufacturing plant in the world, for example.

Its why every time there is a huge push about getting rid of all illegal immigrants in the US its the FARM industry that pushes back

The realize a crackdown would decimate their labor pool, even legal workers who are afraid of being caught in legal entanglements. IIRC, one US state tried a crackdown and farmers complained they couldn't get US workers and if tehy did they lasted a week at best. All of a sudden the state changed course.

I suspect the US efforts will be more show than substance since a significant percentage of farm and construction work depends on immigrant labor; especially in states that are, in the words of Trump, MAGA.
 
So you would be willing to pay the increased cost of producing it in the US?? Or will you start complaining that the cost is too high?
I still use an iPhone 11.
I works, there is nothing "must have" in any of the newer models
I have zero interest in it being a "fashion" item

Yes I bought an M3 16" MBP, but that was needed for various things I am playing with.
But then again I still use my 2009 27" iMac and have just got some extra RAM for it, I replaced the HD years ago for an SSD, so for final Pro it still works just fine for what I do.
 
  • Like
Reactions: arkitect
So the chips are made here, then shipped off to China to be assembled into the watches. Then the watches are shipped back here for sale? This sounds like the most efficient process ever.
So are the glass and a lot of components like audio chips that are made in the US. It doesn't sound very efficient, but it'd be even more inefficient otherwise. Chips are high enough value to justify this kind of transport. Also remember that then US isn't Apple's only market. No matter where you assemble it, you'd end up shipping the end product globally anyways.
 
Are all of the workers American, or is Tim Crook hiring a lot of foreigners on H-1B visas in order to save money and maximize profits for shareholders?
The US hasn't produced enough skilled tool & die workers, scientists, and engineers for many decades. That's why H-1B visas exist. Our skilled industries can't operate without them, although this is apparently a big surprise to a large segment of voters.

And of course the agriculture, meatpacking and construction industries would be (will be) lost without H-1B.
 
  • Like
Reactions: whatgift and MRMSFC
I don't see how that's related. TSMC could just be making the newer chips in Taiwan.

They could use Taiwan for S10/S11. But why ramp up production for a chip (S9) with a super limited lifespan?

Perhaps the S9 could be used in other products, but otherwise what's the point?
 
I doubt the American work force would be tempted to live in a barracks with a rice diet and 12 hour days seven days per week for what the Chinese earn.

The employee numbers required are beyond the US population to support. They have billions of folks where we have just over 300,000 of all ages.

Automation at a scale yet not reached in the USA would be necessary to make 600,000 phones and the other products every day.

China does not want to cut its nose to spite its face. There is tremendous hard currency coming into the country and their economy is faltering.
A faltering economy and a vastly larger population (just over 4x the U.S., by the way; you dropped a factor of 1000 somewhere) sounds like it would raise—not lower—the likelihood of a gamble on drastic moves to improve circumstances. Which in turn suggests that we should be working very urgently on that new, heretofore unreached scale of automation.
 
Took 40 years to move $40 trillion of production to Asia.

It ain't coming back in 4 years. Not when anyone working in a US factory wants their $35/hour but the phone has to cost only $1000. And before you say "I'll pay $2000 for a US made phone!" Yeah, maybe you will, but most won't. Tim Cook knows that.

What does that mean for us? We'll all eat inflationary tariffs, in the form of a regressive tax passed onto us, the middle class consumers. From a guy who barely got through his Econ courses. It's infuriating.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: mlayer
Not happening. The infrastructure doesn't exist in the US to crank out 600,000 iPhones per day (on the average), with the ability to instantly ramp up and down quantity based on demand.
These kind of statements were made when it was merely discussed about building a chip plant in the US. Now we have quite a few chip plants in the US and more to come.

So it's only a mater of time until chip making, electronic manufacturing, and logistics matures in the US. It's odd seeing comments dismissing the idea the US and Europe becoming leading manufacturers of consumer electronics. Apple is opening shop in India, Vietnam, and Indonesia. What's their infrastructure standing and ability? Obviously no where near China's levels. But where is that same dismissive attitude when Apple opens shop in those nations?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jkicker
These kind of statements were made when it was merely discussed about building a chip plant in the US. Now we have quite a few chip plants in the US and more to come.

Apple does not own any semiconductor fabs. Thank god as that would be a very poor use of capital as they cost $10 to $20 billion dollars just to build. And then tons more money staffing them, developing new processes, and keeping them running 24/7 (which Apple could never do) in order to be profitable.

So it's only a mater of time until chip making, electronic manufacturing, and logistics matures in the US. It's odd seeing comments dismissing the idea the US and Europe becoming leading manufacturers of consumer electronics. Apple is opening shop in India, Vietnam, and Indonesia. What's their infrastructure standing and ability? Obviously no where near China's levels. But where is that same dismissive attitude when Apple opens shop in those nations?

Apple is not opening shops in India, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Apple contracts with companies for manufacturing services in those countries.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ronntaylor
When Samsung fabbed Apple's chips previously it was in Austin. It's not like it takes tons of space, and if things are done correctly you're just using planes that were already making a return trip to go pick up more shipments.
I'm not sure that's right. The Samsung fab in Austin is/was a DRAM/FLASH fab.

But maybe.
 
Would be nice to see more American and European companies to produce domestic and getting less dependent on foreign countries. I hope we will slowly see a change and I only applaud any move to make this happen. Nice start Apple!
America only. Europe doesn’t deserve it.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.