iPhone 18 series: Rumor claims 2026-bound A20 Pro chipset could be built by Intel
Apple debuted the A18 and A18 Pro chipsets alongside the iPhone 16 series back in September. While there's little to no doubt that the company already has the A19 Pro in the works, a new report has now provided information on what to expect from the chipset that comes after that—the A20 Pro expected to feature on 2026's iPhone 18 Pro models.
As shared by Chinese leaker Fixed Focus Digital, there are unlikely to be any significant node improvements for next year's A19 Pro chip. The current-gen A18 chipsets are built on TSMC's N3E node, and it appears the A19 generation will make the move up to the Taiwanese company's N3P node, likely alongside Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 as has already been rumored. Interestingly, however, the source claims the A20 chips will ditch TSMC entirely in favor of Intel. Supposedly, rather than contract TSMC to build the A20 chip for the iPhone 18 series, Apple will look to Intel and its 2nm 20A process.
How much of that is true, remains to be seen, especially with Intel forgoing its in-house 20A process in favor of TSMC for the Arrow Lake generation of CPUs, and said 20A process seemingly being intended for Intel-only uses. There are also rumors of Apple prepping the A20 chip to be built on TSMC's N2 node. Either way, the iPhone 18 series remains close to two years away and it is, perhaps, a tad too early for clarity on such matters.
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