TSMC

Primary iPhone assembler Foxconn has reportedly bought a stake in China’s top chipmaker, Tsinghjau Unigroup – but appears to have done so without the necessary government approval.

The move comes at a time when Apple is seeking to widen its chip supplier roster to guard against supply chain disruptions …

While demand for the next generation iPhone is looking to be high, the hectic supply chain continues to disrupt the market. According to DigiTimes, Apple is cutting iPhone 14 orders by 10%, despite expecting strong demand for its lineup.

The CHIPS Act, which would provide more than $50 billion in subsidies for US chip production, is vital if TSMC’s Arizona plant is to proceed on schedule, says the company.

Apple was among the companies to lobby for the subsidy, but political battles mean that the passing of the bill is now in some doubt …

Almost exactly a year ago, the Senate approved $52B in funding to boost US chip production, and the House likewise gave its support in February of this year. Apple also lobbied for the deal. Despite this, the subsidy now appears to be in doubt.

Democrats and Republicans are reported to be bogged down in arguments about other measures in the bill …

TSMC, the iPhone chipmaker, announced that it will start 2nm chip production by 2025. This is the first time the manufacturer states when it’s going to produce its ultra-advanced new chips, as Samsung and Intel made a similar announcements.

A new TSMC Singapore plant is being discussed, as a way to help tackle the global chip shortage. The company is said to be in discussion with the government over the potential move.

A Singapore plant would help Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company achieve another key objective, says the report …

Intel last week provided an update on its 14th-generation Meteor Lake processors due to launch next year, but it seems that there may have been a crucial change to the company’s plans.

Intel has said as recently as last week that it would fabricate the chips itself, using a 7nm process, but a supply-chain report today claims that the company will instead outsource the work to TSMC, so it can benefit from the same 5nm process used for Apple’s M1 chips …

One of the catch-22s of the global component shortage is that chips for chipmaking machines are one of the items in short supply, say execs from Intel and Apple chipmaker TSMC.

Buying new chipmaking machines was never a speedy process, given their complexity and delicacy, but lead times before the pandemic were measured in months. Now, say chipmakers, that time can be as long as 2-3 years …

Apple chipmaker TSMC has announced record revenues for the first quarter of the year, despite the continued component shortage and COVID lockdowns in China.

The company said that Q1 revenue was 35% higher than the same quarter last year – even though it had faced challenges …

After 9to5Mac reported earlier this week that Apple is cutting production for the iPhone SE 3 by at least 20%, a new story by Nikkei Asia shows that demand for smartphones and PCs overall is starting to slow, especially in China – although in the US, Bank of America analysts believe demand for the iPhone is still strong.

Taiwan was hit by widespread power outages this Thursday. With that, two of its biggest cities, TMSC’s iPhone processor production hub, and over five million households were affected by this issue.

We’ve known for several years that an in-house Apple 5G modem design was in the works, to enable the Cupertino company to finally ditch Qualcomm as a supplier. A fresh report today says that Apple is in talks with a potential company to assist with this work.

Apple is expected to switch to its own modem design from 2023, though this likely won’t entirely end the company’s relationship with Qualcomm …

After Apple’s improvement over battery life on the iPhone 13 line, it seems like the company could go a step further with the iPhone 14, as it’s ditching Samsung for smaller and improved TSMC 5G chips.

It’s been almost two years since Apple chipmaker TSMC announced its plans to construct a plant in Arizona. Now, a report indicates that the company is three to six months behind schedule.

Apple chipmaker TSMC has reported record profits for the holiday quarter, comfortably beating analyst expectations. The company has also reported year-on-year revenue growth of 24.1%, a quarter of it generated by Apple.

TSMC, which makes Apple’s A-series and M-series chips, says that it has big expectations and big plans for the next few years …

There are no signs of the global chip shortage easing any time soon, and one of the reasons behind it appears to be getting worse, not better.

Industry experts say that a shortage of qualified staff is a growing problem, especially the highly qualified engineers needed to design new chips and solve manufacturing problems for ever more complex ones …

Apple’s chip manufacturing partner, TSMC, is expected to begin volume production of 3-nanometer chips during the fourth quarter of 2022, according to a new report from DigiTimes. This could mean that we start seeing 3nm chips in Apple products as soon as 2023.

Earlier this year, noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the Apple-designed chip journey would continue as the company worked on developing its own modem chip, and that we might see this as early as 2023. A new report today echoes this, but seems more confident about the 2023 date.

Apple currently uses Qualcomm for its modem chips, but has for many years been unhappy about this …

Update: TSMC is one of a number of chipmakers to have over ‘partial’ data in response to the demand. The company said (per Bloomberg) that ‘no customer specific information was disclosed.’ A spreadsheet reveals things like capabilities and industry splits, but customer-specific pages have been left blank. TSMC has also left blank pages requesting details of disruptions to its production. It is a near-certainty that the company consulted Apple on what data to reveal and withhold.

In an attempt to better understand the global chip shortage, the US Commerce Department has asked for TSMC company data, along with that of other chipmakers around the world.

The deadline set for this is November 8, and so far it appears Apple’s A-series and M-series chipmaker is among the companies that has not responded.