Tim Cook Confirms Apple Will Buy TSMC Chips Manufactured in Arizona

[visualseed]

Apple is reportedly moving a lot of their assembly from mainland China to India and Vietnam, etc.

And they have plants in Brazil too

 

[vanylapep]

Didn't President Trump pushed for this and everyone criticized him?

 

[gmnygts]

Didn't President Trump pushed for this and everyone criticized him?

You mean... the debacle that was Foxconn Wisconsin

 

[dampfnudel]

It will be nice to know a major component of my iPhone was made in the USA.

 

[huge_apple_fangirl]

I think this is the first time Apple has publicly given credit to TSMC for their part in bringing Apple Silicon to life. Well-deserved too! Apple and TSMC have a symbiotic relationship.

 

[svish]

Good to see production happening in USA

 

[George Dawes]

Excellent news !!!

Keep it ALL in-house ie; built in the USA , like the good old days

 

[duck apple]

It doesn't need large amounts of continuous water. They recirculate it from storage tanks/pools. TSMC estimates that they will reclaim 67% of their needed water onsite with the remainder being recycled from renewable sources Phoenix has dedicated just for TSMC. The plant is more efficient and provided more jobs per gallon of water than local golf courses.

Taiwan, though being an island, constantly faced drought season. When in that situation, water for agriculture will be reduced to make sure TSMC getting enough water. You can imagine how angry all the farmers were.

That was about 10 years ago. I never heard of this kind of conflict in recent years. TSMC must have made heavy investment in water recycling.

But it is now facing the shortage of electricity because lots of Taiwanese manufacturers coming home land from China and open a lots of new factories. TSMC is deemed to invest in the most advanced, green (non nuclear only) generator (GE?) to secure their electricity supply.

The other thing is human resource. TSMC and its tiers of long supply chain absorb all the most talented collage graduates in every related fields and that mostly contributes to its glorious victory in beating Samsung. The great America has 100 or 1000 times of the need talents but they are going to Apple, Google, Facebook, GE, Boing, etc., even TSMC offered them 1/3 more pay. It's really a pain working in a fab.

 

[philstubbington]

$40B investment. That's a big one. Guess they plan to sell a lot of chips. 😀

I wonder how much Apple had to c

$40B investment. That's a big one. Guess they plan to sell a lot of chips. 😀

I wonder how much Apple had to commit to using that plant to justify the investment?

 

[videosoul]

Yeah, I suspect this has nothing to do with boosting industry and jobs in the US, and everything to do with weening off reliance on China (but that sailed a long time ago). They could have built a new plant anywhere (see potential for iPhones to be assembled in India), but figured if we’re going to do this, let’s go all-out and do it the US. More expend, but good secondary benefits.

I mean, the concept behind the way the chips work (ARM) came from the UK. Why not build a plant in Scunthorpe 😂😂

 

[T Coma]

"unrivaled ingenuity of American workers" - Despite China being their preferred option until now.

great point. So don't evolve, don't improve, don't change.

As a side, I love that Elon-bashing somehow makes its way in to every thread. 🤡

Musk-sequitur: a non-sequitur response that reorients the topic at hand to Elon Musk.

(with all due credit to Michael Malice)

 

[4743913]

It's a better use of 40 billion compared to that hot piece of crap, Twitter.

and yet you are still talking about it.

 

[snak-atak]

It depends on the chip.

How may M3's per 🧇 do you anticipate? That's the chip I am holding out for. ;-)

 

[falkon-engine]

I wonder what products Apple has planned that will use 4nm from Arizona. Because by time the plant is operational, TSMC in Taiwan will be full steam ahead on 3nm volume production, and 2nm volume production will be right around the corner. And given that Apple tends to the first or one of the first customers on the new nodes, 4nm will be ‘old’ in 2024. Therefore, what products will Apple build with 4nm In 2024?

 

[cb3]

2024?!?! But I want chips now. Great news! Diversify production..

 

[AustinIllini]

Didn't President Trump pushed for this and everyone criticized him?

He whined and threw a fit but nothing really ever came of it.

 

[4743913]

He whined and through a fit but nothing really ever came of it.

too many hoaxes

 

[Mojohanna32]

This is great! Now they can get the chips right here in the good old US of A, and... and... then ship them to China for assembly.

Most likely more going to Vietnam or India.

Interestingly, Foxconn has purchased the old Chevy Lordstown plant outside of Youngstown, Ohio. I have not really seen any news on what their plans are for this factory. It's quite large.

 

[nylonsteel]

i used to work in the semiconductor industry
funny how manufacturing has run full circle
first in usa only - then over seas - then back to the usa (in limited capacity and way higher labor cost)

 

[Mojohanna32]

and along with it all the toxic pollution that will cause major health issues for the Arizona workers and people in the communities.

have you read up on the AZ plant? They recycle something like 98% of the water they use. The Intel plant going in central OH is in one of the more well off suburbs of Columbus. IF these places were spewers of toxic pollution, I would doubt that communities would be as excited as they are for them to locate there.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

Now I’m a fan of Cook. But…

"unrivalled ingenuity of American workers"​

Hahahaha!

Well, it's his job to also appeal to conservative Apple customers, whether he wants to or not.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

let's invest in water infrastructure then.
Government's job is to create infrastructure.
we want jobs, we want computers, but we want China to make these for us ?

Missed my point entirely.

My issue is with doing this in the drought-laden West (as in Arizona).

 

[Unregistered 4U]

This is great! Now they can get the chips right here in the good old US of A, and... and... then ship them to China for assembly.

Not necessarily. For extremely low volume devices like the future expensive headset and the expensive Mac Pro, there’s enough capacity in the US to cover assembly. They’d still have to ship some parts from overseas, but, at these volumes, one container could last them a few months of production.

 

[LeadingHeat]

Taiwan ≠ China.



This is not meant to be political, several places recognise Taiwan as a separate country, so do I.

I know that, and you know that.... but does China know that?

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Is Apple going to open a water company? What are the predicted effects of the ongoing drought?

Edit: Answered my own question

https://pr.tsmc.com/english/news/2977

Yeah, they’re only making 20,000 wafers a month. They will need a tiny amount of water compared to operations outside the US.