TSMC is expected to start 2 nanometre chip production in the second half of 2025. Apple will be the first company to buy these chips from TSMC.
The A15 Pro chip in iPhone 17 Pro models and M3 series chips in Macs use 3 nanometre processors. The transition from 5nm technology to 3nm technology brought improvements such as 20% higher GPU speed, 10% higher CPU speed, 2 times faster Neural Engine in iPhones. Similar improvements are also available on Macs. iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are expected to use TSMC's 2nm chips.
TSMC to start 2nm chip production in 2025
TSMC is building two new plants for 2nm chip production and is even awaiting approval for a third plant. TSMC usually builds new factories when it needs to increase production capacity to fulfil significant chip orders; for 2nm technology, the company will produce in a larger area. TSMC will use nanosheet-based GAAFET instead of FinFET in 2nm chips. This means the manufacturing process will be more challenging. GAAFETs enable higher speeds with smaller transistor size and lower operating voltage.
TSMC is rumoured to have spent billions of dollars for this change. Apple will also make changes in chip design to adapt to the new technology. Apple will again be the first company to buy TMSC's new chips.
Meanwhile, TSMC has started work on more advanced 1.4 nanometre chips and these chips are expected to be released in 2027.