TapTechNews May 20th news, according to the Taiwanese media Economic Daily, Apple's chief operating officer Jeff Williams paid a low-key visit to TSMC, and TSMC president Wei Zhejia received him in person. The two sides mainly discussed the development of Apple's self-developed AI chip and matters such as TSMC using advanced process technology to produce chips.
Apple needs more advanced semiconductor technology support. Previously, Apple has booked the first batch of TSMC's 3-nanometer production capacity. If it subsequently reserves the first batch of production capacity of 2-nanometer or even more advanced processes, TSMC's revenue will continue to increase, and there is a chance to reach a new high this year, which is expected to reach 600 billion New Taiwan dollars (TapTechNews note: currently about 135 billion Chinese yuan).
Apple's chief financial officer Luca Maestri said at the earnings conference that the company plans to continue to advance its investment in the data center. Apple has its own data center and also uses third-party ones, and this model works well. He also mentioned that the company is excited about generative AI and has invested more than 100 billion US dollars in related fields in the past five years.
Apple has cooperated with TSMC for many years. The A-series processors used in iPhones and the M-series processors used in MacBook and iPad are all the products of the cooperation between the two sides. This visit by Williams to TSMC is to discuss the new wave of cooperation between Apple's AI self-developed chip and TSMC.
Apple has started to layout in the AI server side and build its own AI computing processor. These processors will be mass-produced using TSMC's advanced process and adopt a 3D stacking method, but due to the high cost, in the short term, Apple should not have a plan to expand it to terminal devices.
Next, Apple will also develop three different levels of M4 processors with the code names of Donan, Brava, and Hidra to fully seize the business opportunity of AIPC. These processors will start large-scale production at TSMC in the second half of this year.