As reported on July 16th by EE Times, Apple has reserved 90% of TSMC’s 3nm process wafers for the production of A17 Bionic and M3 chips.
However, the current yield rate of this advanced process is only 55%, meaning that almost half of the wafers are below standard and cannot be used for Apple products.
Brett Simpson, a senior analyst at Arete Research, believes that TSMC and Apple have reached a special agreement in which Apple only needs to pay for qualified wafers instead of paying the standard pricing, which could be as high as USD 17,000 per piece.
TSMC may only begin to implement this business model for Apple in the second half of 2024. The 3nm process is one of the most advanced chip manufacturing technologies available, capable of enhancing chip performance and efficiency while reducing power consumption and cost.
Apple plans to use the A17 Bionic and M3 chips in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, respectively, with TSMC expecting to produce 100,000 3nm wafers per month by the end of 2023 to meet Apple’s demand.
However, with a yield rate of only 55%, only 55,000 wafers will be usable.
Apple will only pay the standard wafer price once the yield rate reaches 70%, which is not expected to happen until the first half of 2024. There are rumors that Apple may switch to N3E, another 3nm process from TSMC, in 2024, which is said to have better yields and lower production costs.
However, this could result in lower performance for the A17 Bionic and M3 chips, so Apple has not yet made a decision.
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