Apple ARM and Intel Nova Lake to be the first 2 nm chips to be manufactured at TSMC

The race for the fastest, most efficient chips continues: Apple and Intel are currently competing for TSMC's first batches of chips manufactured via a new 2 nm process, according to the Taiwan Economic Daily. Mass production is set to begin as early as 2025.

Apple is likely to be the first to launch a product with a 2 nm processor, although it is still unclear whether the iPhone 17 Pro or a Mac with an Apple M-series chip will be the first to come onto the market with such an advanced chip. This will ultimately depend on the actual production capacities available next year. Intel, on the other hand, is expected to rely on TSMC's 2 nm production and will likely deliver chips based on the new process from 2026. 

According to leaker Moore's Law is Dead, Nova Lake will combine 16 performance cores with 32 efficiency cores. Together with four lower-power cores in the SoC tile, the chips would have an impressive total of 52 processor cores. It will be interesting to see how Intel's in-house chip production can hold its own against TSMC over the next few years, as the semiconductor giant only recently announced that it would manufacture 1.5 nm chips at its new chip factory in Magdeburg in the future, with further details on the schedule for the Ångström era to be officially confirmed in the coming weeks. According to older roadmaps, both Intel 20A (2 nm) and Intel 18A (1.8 nm) are expected to be ready for production in the course of 2024. Intel 18A promises more than 25% better performance per watt than Intel 3.