Taiwan Semiconductor Begins Production Of Apple A16 Smartphone Chips At Arizona Facility: Report

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co TSM is manufacturing Apple Inc’s AAPL A16 SoC at Phase 1 of the Taiwanese contract chipmaker’s Fab 21 in Arizona.

The chip made with Taiwan Semiconductor’s 5nm family, N4, debuted in 2022 with the iPhone 14 Pro. In 2024, Taiwan Semiconductor’s board approved a fresh capital infusion of up to $7.5 billion into Taiwan Semiconductor Arizona.

Per a Tim Culpan report, Taiwan Semiconductor proposes ramping up volume production upon completing the second stage of the Phase 1 fab.

Recent reports indicate that the Arizona facility’s production yield is at par with its Taiwan facilities.

The Apple chipmaking update coincides with Apple’s market share loss in its crucial market, China. The iPhonemaker’s market share in China dropped to 14% in the second quarter of 2024, down by two percentage points year-on-year. Additionally, Huawei Technologies Co targeted Apple’s premium smartphone market share by announcing the launch of the tri-fold smartphone Mate X shortly after the launch of the iPhone 16 series. Apple stock gained 22% in the last 12 months.

Meanwhile, things are relatively hunky-dory for Taiwan Semiconductor as the smartphone market recovery and continued demand for Nvidia Corp NVDA AI chips play out as growth catalysts.

Recent reports indicated that Taiwan Semiconductor might bag Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google’s smartphone chip deal involving Pixel 10 and Pixel 11 chips as Samsung Electronics SSNLF owned Samsung Foundry failed to deliver.

Price Actions: Apple stock is up 1.4% at $219.88 at last check Wednesday. Taiwan Semiconductor is up 0.23% at $167.74; It’s up 89% in the last 12 months.

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