Apple received bad news from TSMC

According to a reliable source on social network Weibo, it will take until the second half of 2026 for TSMC to mass produce 2nm chips, so it cannot be in time for the iPhone 17 series to launch in 2025. This is sad news for those who are waiting. Hopefully iPhone 17 Pro will become the first smartphone to use a 2nm chip.

Last year, Apple released the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max equipped with the A17 Pro processor designed based on the first generation 3nm process in TSMC's 3nm (N3B) process, becoming the manufacturer The first and only smartphone to use the 3nm process with the number of transistors reaching 190 billion.

Apple received bad news from TSMC Picture 1 Apple received bad news from TSMC Picture 1

This year, Apple's iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will be equipped with the A18 Pro processor, designed based on TSMC's 2nd generation 3nm process (N3E). The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are A18 Bionic, manufactured using the 2nd generation 3nm N3E process.

If it is true that TSMC cannot mass produce 2nm chips for iPhone 17, then Samsung's Galaxy S26 may become the first smartphone to use 2nm chips.

Qualcomm will launch Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 SoC in 2026 and is expected to purchase 2nm chips from TSMC. However, according to PhoneArena, it is unclear whether Qualcomm can move from 3nm to 2nm so quickly because Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be the first 3nm Snapdragon processor.

In 2022, TSMC revealed its plan to mass produce 2nm chips by 2025. Apple also signed a contract with TSMC for the entire 2nm production process during the initial period of operation to apply to the iPhone. and Apple Silicon for future Mac computers.