According to Apple Insider, the defect rate of TSMC's new 3nm manufacturing process is about 30%, but according to exclusive terms, the company only charges Apple for high-quality chips.
As Apple COO (Chief Operating Officer) Jeff Williams said, Apple has long had a "close" relationship with TSMC. Now, a new report from The Information states that this relationship is unique among all other TSMC customers and all other processor manufacturers.
Specifically, TSMC does not charge Apple all fees when producing wafers containing hundreds of chips. On the contrary, it only charges the company for 'known good chips', which can save Apple billions of dollars.
Generally speaking, the price difference is not statistically significant, as approximately 99% of the processors on TSMC wafers are good. However, currently, the yield rate of the new 3nm chip produced by TSMC in December 2022 is only 70% to 80%.
This situation will improve, and Apple can profit by not paying for defective chips, while TSMC can also profit.
Previously, there were reports that Apple had bought out TSMC's 3nm production capacity, but The Information reported that TSMC was able to develop updated technology mainly because Apple was willing to order a large number of new chips as soon as possible.
Therefore, Apple is helping to fund the development of 3nm chips. Once the yield rate improves and TSMC's production capacity increases, the company will be able to sell 3nm chips to other companies without such "special transactions".
It is estimated that the adoption of 3nm manufacturing technology means that the upcoming iPhone 15 series may increase energy efficiency by 35%.
Apple and TSMC did not publicly comment.
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