The word was that TSMC was previously looking to charge much more for their 2nm node.
Apple may just be looking to apply pricing pressure.
> TSMC has finalized the pricing for its upcoming 2nm process, setting the wafer price at around $30,000. This marks a 10%–20% increase compared with the 3nm process average of $25,000–$27,000, lower than earlier market speculation of a 50% hike.
This is the type of rumor that could swing a stock price... I'm skeptical of how this got out there and by whom.
Just look for those in the Trump admin that just bought Intel stock. That should narrow it down.
The US government itself owns $11 billion worth of Intel stock.
So yes, that narrows it down.
[dead]
To fab the CPUs...seems more plausible than anything else with Intel.
So, they’re going to use a more power hungry process for the low end devices? The whole point of the Air and SE lines was that they were lightweight and compact.
Watching a company at that scale completely lose its own plot is depressing. Did they replace Cook with an LLM that compacted its context one too many times?
Edit: This is a bad look for intel too. How are Apple store employees/nerds going to explain this product line bifurcation? “This low end Apple gizmo is a hot mess because it has Intel Inside. Also, it’s $50 more than last year. MAGA!”
Is the 18A process more power hungry?
'Kuo said Apple plans to utilize Intel's 18A process, which is the "earliest available sub-2nm advanced node manufactured in North America."'
What makes you think they are going to be more power-hungry than if Apple manufactured them itself?
The article says it’s going on Intel 18a, which has better performance, but worse density/power consumption than TSMC’s comparable node:
Unless Apple is going to add active cooling or something to the Air, iPad and iPhone, I’d expect more thermal throttling on the intel chips (though the difference isn’t as stark as I assumed — it looks like Intel closed the gap a bit with 18a).
> How are Apple store employees/nerds going to explain this product line bifurcation?
I really doubt most Apple customers care. A few do, but they've long been the minority.
Yeah; but the ones that don’t care about the details often ask someone “which one should I buy?”
Currently, for MacBooks, the answer is “the small one doesn’t have a fan, so for sustained work like games or iMovie it is slower. However, it is smaller, lighter, quieter and cheaper”.
they did it with the modem previously, the second supplier was strictly worse, but they need to have a negotiating position with their single point of failure supplier
> but they need to have a negotiating position with their single point of failure supplier
They don't. Apple has an Architecture License for ARM, they can do whatever the fuck they want.
If you're referring to TSMC - it shouldn't be too much of a problem for Apple to go and contract Samsung instead, at least assuming Samsung can keep up the yield. Intel isn't a competitor to either TSMC or Samsung, their fab process is years behind.
Strictly speaking, Samsung currently has no analogous product to 18A or TSMC 2nm.
Again? I’m kind of surprised Intel wants anything to do with them after the M stuff. Things must be really bad at Intel.
Intel knows that it's their own fault Apple ditched Intel for M CPUs. Intel couldn't provide any meaningful improvements particularly for MacBooks for years.
Is this 2006 again?
An insignificant token to appease growing discontent by American people. Apple was investing in China around "$55 billion per year by 2015".
The word was that TSMC was previously looking to charge much more for their 2nm node.
Apple may just be looking to apply pricing pressure.
> TSMC has finalized the pricing for its upcoming 2nm process, setting the wafer price at around $30,000. This marks a 10%–20% increase compared with the 3nm process average of $25,000–$27,000, lower than earlier market speculation of a 50% hike.
https://technode.com/2025/10/09/tsmc-sets-2nm-wafer-price-at...
This is the type of rumor that could swing a stock price... I'm skeptical of how this got out there and by whom.
Just look for those in the Trump admin that just bought Intel stock. That should narrow it down.
The US government itself owns $11 billion worth of Intel stock.
So yes, that narrows it down.
[dead]
To fab the CPUs...seems more plausible than anything else with Intel.
So, they’re going to use a more power hungry process for the low end devices? The whole point of the Air and SE lines was that they were lightweight and compact.
Watching a company at that scale completely lose its own plot is depressing. Did they replace Cook with an LLM that compacted its context one too many times?
Edit: This is a bad look for intel too. How are Apple store employees/nerds going to explain this product line bifurcation? “This low end Apple gizmo is a hot mess because it has Intel Inside. Also, it’s $50 more than last year. MAGA!”
Is the 18A process more power hungry?
'Kuo said Apple plans to utilize Intel's 18A process, which is the "earliest available sub-2nm advanced node manufactured in North America."'
What makes you think they are going to be more power-hungry than if Apple manufactured them itself?
The article says it’s going on Intel 18a, which has better performance, but worse density/power consumption than TSMC’s comparable node:
https://www.techspot.com/news/106782-intel-18a-found-faster-...
Unless Apple is going to add active cooling or something to the Air, iPad and iPhone, I’d expect more thermal throttling on the intel chips (though the difference isn’t as stark as I assumed — it looks like Intel closed the gap a bit with 18a).
> How are Apple store employees/nerds going to explain this product line bifurcation?
I really doubt most Apple customers care. A few do, but they've long been the minority.
Yeah; but the ones that don’t care about the details often ask someone “which one should I buy?”
Currently, for MacBooks, the answer is “the small one doesn’t have a fan, so for sustained work like games or iMovie it is slower. However, it is smaller, lighter, quieter and cheaper”.
they did it with the modem previously, the second supplier was strictly worse, but they need to have a negotiating position with their single point of failure supplier
> but they need to have a negotiating position with their single point of failure supplier
They don't. Apple has an Architecture License for ARM, they can do whatever the fuck they want.
If you're referring to TSMC - it shouldn't be too much of a problem for Apple to go and contract Samsung instead, at least assuming Samsung can keep up the yield. Intel isn't a competitor to either TSMC or Samsung, their fab process is years behind.
Strictly speaking, Samsung currently has no analogous product to 18A or TSMC 2nm.
Again? I’m kind of surprised Intel wants anything to do with them after the M stuff. Things must be really bad at Intel.
Intel knows that it's their own fault Apple ditched Intel for M CPUs. Intel couldn't provide any meaningful improvements particularly for MacBooks for years.
Is this 2006 again?
An insignificant token to appease growing discontent by American people. Apple was investing in China around "$55 billion per year by 2015".