Apple prepares to source chips from new TSMC plant in Arizona in pivot from Asia
- Apple CEO Tim Cook made the disclosure during an internal meeting in Germany with local engineering and retail employees
- The US government is dangling roughly US$50 billion in incentives to encourage semiconductor manufacturing to expand stateside
Apple is preparing to begin sourcing chips for its devices from a plant under construction in Arizona, marking a major step toward reducing the company’s reliance on Asian production.
Chief executive officer Tim Cook made the disclosure during an internal meeting in Germany with local engineering and retail employees as part of a recent tour of Europe, according to remarks reviewed by Bloomberg News. He added that Apple may also expand its supply of chips from plants in Europe.
“We’ve already made a decision to be buying out of a plant in Arizona, and this plant in Arizona starts up in ’24, so we’ve got about two years ahead of us on that one, maybe a little less,” Cook told the employees. “And in Europe, I’m sure that we will also source from Europe as those plans become more apparent,” he said at the meeting, which included Apple services chief Eddy Cue and Deirdre O’Brien, its head of retail and human resources.
Cook is likely referring to an Arizona factory that will be run by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), Apple’s exclusive chip-manufacturing partner. That plant is slated for a 2024 opening. And TSMC is already eyeing a second US facility, part of a broader push to increase chip production in the country.
Representatives for Apple and TSMC declined to comment.
Intel is also building plants in Arizona that will open as early as 2024. The chip maker was a major Apple supplier for years, but it is unlikely to recapture that business. Apple has swapped out Intel processors in Macs and other products in favour of its own components, and the chip maker has an unproven track record of manufacturing other companies’ designs.
The US government is dangling roughly US$50 billion in incentives – part of legislation known as the Chips and Science Act – to encourage semiconductor manufacturing to expand stateside. The iPhone maker currently sources its device processors from TSMC plants located in Taiwan, an area with an outsize share of production. During the meeting, Cook said that 60 per cent of the world’s processor supply comes out of Taiwan.
“Regardless of what you may feel and think, 60 per cent coming out of anywhere is probably not a strategic position,” he said.