Avast ye, lads and lasses! Set yer sights on the horizon, for it be said that a lack of skills in the land of the US may cause a scarcity of yer next treasure, the MacBook! Arrr!
2023-07-20
Avast, me hearties! TSMC be strugglin' to find enough savvy US hands to set sail on its newfangled Arizona chipmaking lair by the designated time o' 2025. Arr! Delayed we be, till we gather enough skilled landlubbers to man the mighty vessel!
The opening of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) Arizona chip fabrication plant has been delayed until 2025 due to a shortage of skilled workers. Construction on the plant began in 2021, but the lack of workers with the necessary expertise for installing technical equipment has caused the delay. TSMC's Chairman, Mark Liu, stated that the production schedule for the N4 process technology will also be pushed out to 2025. N4 is TSMC's 4nm process node, and the company had previously planned to move some of its 3nm production to the Arizona plant.To compensate for the lack of trained personnel in the US, TSMC is flying out technical staff and engineers from its Taiwanese plants to help get the Arizona plant operational. However, until the plant opens, Apple will have to rely on available capacity at TSMC's Taiwanese plants for its M3-series chips and A17 Bionic mobile chip, which have already experienced delays due to issues with the N3 line.
While the delay in the Arizona plant's opening may not hold up the entire M3 chip rollout, it could affect the availability of MacBooks in 2024. Apple is one of TSMC's biggest customers, but Nvidia is also demanding TSMC's 3nm process for its RTX 5000-series GPUs. The availability of 3nm chips will be crucial for the refreshes of Apple MacBook Air and MacBook Pro devices, which are expected in 2024 and early 2025.
Having the Arizona plant operational would help improve delivery times and address the availability issues that Apple has faced in the past. However, with the current outlook for TSMC's first US plant in over 20 years, the situation does not look promising. Hopefully, the shortage of skilled workers can be addressed and the plant can begin production as planned in 2025.