It won’t even make iPhone chips.
The facility was completed earlier this year, and manufacturing is set tobegin in 2024.
Chip manufacturing is measured in nanometers.
rioryan / Unsplash
Or rather, the term nanometer (nm) is used to name successive generations of chip-making tech.
For example, the current iPhone 14 models use chips made using the 5nm process.
Thats important because smaller transistors mean faster processing and less power required to do it.
And the Arizona plant?
Which is to say, the Arizona plant wont be making iPhone chips.
Or not current ones, at least.
It could instead make other chips for Apples devices, or it could make older A-series chips.
Made in the US
Apple plays a long game with its manufacturers.
It has a history of massive investment in both infrastructure and training for its manufacturing partners.
For example, when it started milling MacBooks from solid aluminum blocks, Appleinvested in CNC lathesfor its partners.
It’s also cheaper to build outside the US.
Second, there are often significant delays in getting new technology approved by regulators in China and India."
Its also reliant on China as a large market for selling those finished iPhones.
So, getting chip manufacturing out of Taiwan is a priority.
The Arizona plant could be the first step towards this.
Biden and Cook toured the Arizona facility together because its future is equally important to both of them.
