Samsung Foundry, like TSMC, plans to build 2nm chips in the U.S.
TSMC plans to build 2nm chips at one of its U.S. fabs in Arizona by 2028. As great as that sounds for U.S. tech companies like Apple, by then, TSMC's most cutting-edge chips could be built in Taiwan using the 1.4nm node. The process node used to build a chip is important because typically lower process node numbers reduce the size of the transistors packed inside a chip. This means that a chip's transistor count can be higher along with the chip's transistor density which is the number of transistors that fit into a given area of the component.
Typically, the more transistors shoehorned into a chip, the more powerful and or energy-efficient that chip is. TSMC will start mass producing 2nm chipsets during the second half of this year. Apple is expected to be among the first to use a 2nm application processor to power a smartphone with 2026's iPhone 18 line; the latter will sport the A20 and A20 Pro application processors.
TSMC won't be the only foundry in the U.S. churning out 2nm SoCs. Samsung is planning on building an advanced chip production facility in Taylor, Texas. Not only did Samsung shell out billions to help build the fab, the company received $4.74 billion in incentives from the U.S. government. Samsung Foundry hopes to start producing chips at the facility in 2026. A new report out of Korea says that Samsung Foundry plans on making 3nm and 2nm chips at the fab as the plan calls for Sammy to bring in all the necessary equipment early in 2026 and begin production before that year is out.
Samsung Foundry hopes to build 3nm and 2nm chips in Tyler, Texas. | Image credit-Samsung Foundry
As we told you about a week ago, TSMC is already building 4nm chipsets in Arizona including the A16 Bionic for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. TSMC is also producing parts of Apple's S9 system-in-package (SiP) processor for the Apple Watch Series 9. In case you were wondering, the difference between a SiP and a SoC is that the latter includes all of the components (CPU, GPU, memory, etc.) in a single die. The SiP combines individual dies into a single package.
As we've discussed several times, Samsung Foundry employs Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistors for both 3nm and 2nm production. GAA uses horizontal nanosheets placed vertically as the gate completely covers the channel on all four sides reducing current leaks and improving the drive current. This results in greater performance and more energy efficiency for the chip. TSMC sticks with FinFET transistors for its 3nm chips and will use GAA at 2nm.
The U.S. is finally getting its shot at becoming a major player in the production of advanced semiconductors. In ten years, many of the chips that Apple obtains for its devices might be built in fabs located in the United States.
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