9 ms·
Apple's A chips were, once upon a time, manufactured by Samsung in Austin, Texas until 14nm in 2015. Tim Apple switched to TSMC in Taiwan shortly after defendi
by tooltalk 7y ago
Apple's A chips were, once upon a time, manufactured by Samsung in Austin, Texas until 14nm in 2015. Tim Apple switched to TSMC in Taiwan shortly after defending Apple's outsourcing practices in a rare national TV appearance, boldly claiming that "the engines of iPads and iPhones are made in US."
Tesla's chips are made in Samsung's Austin, Texas plant.
- kijin 7y agoWell, there's the American fab we've been looking for! Samsung isn't too far behind TSMC, is it? Even if the Austin plant were a generation or two behind their Korean plants, it shouldn't be too difficult to bring it up to date -- especially if the investment will be rewarded by lucrative defense contracts. Besides, Samsung already builds a lot of military-grade stuff for the Korean government, so it's not like they lack the experience. This sounds much easier than telling TSMC to build a whole new fab on American soil.
- tooltalk 7y agoWell, the key thing is to get everyone to use the US plant, but nobody wants to use potential competitor's foundry, who recently announced that they plan to spend $100+B to challenge other logic chip makers. A few minuscule defense contracts aren't probably worth what they have to invest in -- Samsung for instance has already spent $15B in their Austin plant.