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TSMC 3nm wafer costs surge to $18,000

TSMC's 3nm wafer costs surge to $18,000 as Apple's A-series chips pack 20 billion transistors (Image source: TSMC)
TSMC's 3nm wafer costs surge to $18,000 as Apple's A-series chips pack 20 billion transistors (Image source: TSMC)
As semiconductor manufacturing advances, TSMC's wafer costs have skyrocketed, now topping $18,000—more than three times what they used to be for older nodes.

TSMC’s cutting-edge semiconductor production costs have skyrocketed, with 3nm wafers hitting around $18,000—much higher than the $5,000 price tag for 28nm wafers, according to Creative Strategies CEO Ben Bajarin. Earlier reports suggested that 2nm wafers could cost as much as $30,000 per wafer. This jump in expenses has arrived right alongside Apple’s A-series processor evolution, which leaped from 1 billion transistors in the 2013 A7 to a staggering 20 billion in the 2024 A18 Pro.

A big factor behind these rising prices is the increasingly complex nature of advanced process nodes. The cost per square millimeter has climbed from $0.07 for the A7 to $0.25 for the A17 and A18 Pro chips. Even though Apple’s smartphone processors have kept their die sizes in the 80–125 square millimeter range, they’ve still managed to achieve significant gains in transistor density and overall functionality.

You can see how far the technology has come by comparing the A7’s dual high-performance cores and four-cluster GPU to the A18 Pro’s setup: two performance cores, four efficiency cores, a 16-core NPU, and a six-cluster GPU. However, more recent nodes haven’t boosted density quite as much, mainly because SRAM scaling has been slowing down.

Starting in January 2025, TSMC plans to raise prices again, with 3nm and 5nm processes increasing by 5 percent to 10 percent and CoWoS packaging rising by 15 percent to 20 percent. The foundry also aims to provide discounts on more mature process technologies to stay competitive.

TSMC’s much-anticipated 2nm process is slated for mass production in late 2025 and has already snagged high-profile clients like Apple, Nvidia, and Qualcomm. However, Korean outlets report that limited capacity might push some companies to consider Samsung’s facilities instead.

Apple, though, stands out from TSMC's usual customers. Word has it they’re the only one paying per chip instead of per wafer. By jumping on new process nodes early, Apple not only helps fine-tune the manufacturing process to boost yield rates but also positions itself to possibly balance out the rising production costs.

Source(s)

Fast Technology (in Chinese) & @BenBajarin (in English)

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Nathan Ali, 2025-01- 7 (Update: 2025-01- 7)