Apple's A16 chip is now made in the USA

The TSMC foundry in Arizona has been under construction for many years, and planning for this project began as early as 2020. After four years, the facility is now reportedly up and running and has started producing chips for Apple.

According to Tim Kulpan's sources, Phase One of TSMC's Fab 21 plant in Arizona is making the A16 processor for the iPhone 14 Pro in “small, but significant quantities”. Production is mainly test for this facility at this stage, but production is expected to increase in the coming months.

The volume will increase significantly when the second stage of the first phase of the plant is actually completed. If all goes according to plan, the Arizona plant will reach production targets sometime in the first half of 2025.

The chips are said to be made using the same N4P process used to make A16 at TSMC factories in Taiwan. It is considered an improved version of the 5-nanometer process, not 4-nanometer production.

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“The Arizona project is on schedule with good progress,” TSMC spokeswoman Culpan said, but they stopped short of naming Apple as the first customer to manufacture at the facility.

Sources say that TSMC is achieving results that are slightly behind those of factories located in Taiwan. Performance parity is expected to be reached within a few months.

Production is important to US chip manufacturing, in part because of how much TSMC has received from the US government. In addition to an initial investment of $12 billion in the plant, which began in 2020, the company also received $6.6 billion in subsidies from the US Department of Commerce under the CHIPS for America Fund.

TSMC has also increased its investment and moved to build additional plants in Arizona, where it plans to build three plants in total. The U.S. Commerce Department previously said it would create 6,000 direct manufacturing jobs, in addition to an estimated 20,000 construction jobs.