10mo ago

Apple's mobile chips are now made in the U.S. — TSMC produces the older A16 Bionic at its Arizona fab

www.tomshardware.com

52 comments

It’s very impressive that they got such a modern process up and running in such a relatively short period of time. I understand the Arizona location is relatively new.
- Yeah, they're essentially doing trials where Arizona fab provides small amounts of sillicon that's being validated against what Taiwan fab does. While it was planned for 2024 I'm guessing everyone thought it would be delayed. It's quite a big win for US, they're on track to secure domestic supply of fairly modern chips in case shit hits the fan in Taiwan.
  
  And they managed to do that with those lazy US workers? Wow.
  E: folks, pls look up TSMC bosses' statements on American workers' ethic
- Thanks, Biden! And the American taxpayer!
- Maybe, but Intel operates there so the labour pool is probably quite skilled already. Perhaps good supply chains too.
more domestic production is great
This is HORRIBLE! I'm a Patriotic Republican and don't know why it's Horrible Yet but Biden did it so it's BAD!!
- He did it to support the rich libtards! Not the poor working Republicans can no longer afford guns to stop the immigrants. And he hates Tiaywan !
  /S
- We shouldn't be making water and energy intensive manufacturing in a hot desert.
Bit by bit, Taiwan will be slowly sold off to China once they no longer hold the last thing that made them worthy of Western protection. Of course, there will be some harsh words of condemnation, but that's it. That's my theory. Sad but true.
- That's the reason I'm rooting for everyone, including China, to do well with domestic chipmaking. Makes everyone have little less reason to try this modern day mutually assured destruction.
  
  China: "this guys right, we are almost close to be our own chip manufacture and owning Taiwan."
Anybody know if this has anything to do with Biden's Chips and Sciences program?
- Yes. So far, the CHIPS Act has resulted in $6.6b in direct funding and an additional $5b in available loans for the AZ facility.
  
  Cool. Thanks for the intel.
- Because the U.S. government gave them $6.6 billion to do it under the CHIPS Act: https://www.reuters.com/technology/tsmc-wins-66-bln-us-subsidy-arizona-chip-production-2024-04-08/
  With TSMC, it’s insurance against China invading Taiwan but Intel (and probably everyone else) got a load of subsidies too. After the chip shortage during the pandemic and Russia invading Ukraine, chip production became a national security issue.
- From a business perspective: more control over the manufacturing process and less risk of getting hit by tariffs
  
  Less risk of tariffs on China, less risk of supply chain disruptions like with the pandemic, takes advantage of incentives from the US government, and is something that is cool to advertise.
- Multiple sources of production.
  We learned during concentrating all of your production in one small country wasn't a good idea. Plus having multiple sources has always been suggested in case anything goes wrong with one company you can still have some production.
- Yeah that's been my least favourite experience with Lemmy.
  Many replies are hostile and highly opinionated.
  I don't have an answer for your question but it was a good question and it made me curious.
  I'm in favour of domestic production but I would always want more information about it.
- Apple wants to cut down on counterfeiting. The US wants to prevent supply chain issues and reduce reliance on foreign chip production. The wiki article on the CHIPS Act is a pretty good overview: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIPS_and_Science_Act
  
  Uhh. Who's counterfeiting a cpu that only basically 2 factories in the world can make? Functional fakes are a thing for some really basic chips but an apple arm cpu seems like a little much.
- We’ve spent the last few decades outsourcing key industries, where US no longer has as much manufacturing and we’re way too dependent on other countries. It took supply chain disruptions from COViD to realize how much of a bad idea that was.
  We’re finally trying to recapture some of those key jobs, industries, supply chains, dependencies, starting with chips and renewable energy. THANKS, BIDEN! this is what will make America great again
N00b question. Do these chips get transferred from USA to India/Vietnam for assembly and then back again to all over the world for shipping?
- They may. But logistically I can’t see it being a problem. Each CPU is like 10mmx10mmx1mm. You could fit a TON in a 1m^3 box.
  
  Ideally 100,000 if my math is correct. Just be careful as there is no packing material except for the box itself.
  
  Hmm. Perhaps we'd come to a point where these facilities are on all continents to reduce ecological impact, but I guess Apple isn't that green.
Where will they keep the child laborers?
- That was Foxcon, not TSMC. And all of us have a LOT of shit in our homes made by Foxcon.
  Not that it justifies the shit Foxcon did. Just saying that Apple got a lot of flack, even though a lot of other companies should be scrutinized for their manufacturing contractor choices. Microsoft, Sony, etc.
- I heard child labour was legal in the US again? Or is this not in Arizona?
- US, not israel.

52 comments