iPhone 17 Pro was originally planned to be the first to use TSMC’s 2nm process
Apple originally planned to use TSMC’s 2nm processor chips in the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, but due to TSMC’s high 2nm cost and limited production capacity, Apple postponed the commercialization of 2nm to 2026.
The report pointed out that TSMC has started trial production of the 2nm process at its Baoshan plant in Hsinchu. The initial yield is 60%, which means that nearly 40% of the wafers cannot be used and the cost of each wafer is as high as US$30,000.
Therefore, Apple has postponed the commercialization of 2nm by one year. It is expected that the 2026 iPhone 18 Pro series will be the first to launch TSMC’s 2nm chip, which means that the iPhone 17 series will continue to use TSMC’s 3nm process.
Earlier at the IEDM 2024 conference, TSMC disclosed key details of the 2nm process. Compared with 3nm, the transistor density of 2nm increased by 15%, the performance increased by 15% at the same power consumption, and the power consumption decreased by 24-35% at the same performance.
In addition, TSMC’s 2nm process introduces gate-all-around (GAA) nanosheet transistors for the first time, which helps to adjust the channel width and balance performance and energy efficiency. The nanosheet transistors using the new process can achieve significant energy efficiency improvements at a low voltage of 0.5-0.6V.
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