Apple gears up to get ‘Made-in-US’ chips for its devices by 2024

In a bid to reduce the reliance on Asia’s chip plant, the iPhone maker is planning to source chips from a plant under construction in Arizona.

The report has come after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen decried “rumours” about the risk of investing in the island’s key semiconductor industry.

Taiwan plays an outsized role in providing the chips used in everything from cars and smartphones to fighter jets.

But the Chinese military’s menacing of the island to assert Beijing’s sovereignty claims, especially after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in August, is causing the chip industry to rethink the risk over Taiwan.

According to the agency, Apple CEO Tim Cook disclosed during an internal meeting in Germany with local engineering and retail employees as part of a recent tour of Europe.

Cook also reportedly said that Apple Apple may also expand its supply of chips from plants in Europe.

“We’ve already made a decision to be buying out of a plant in Arizona, and this plant in Arizona starts up in ’24, so we’ve got about two years ahead of us on that one, maybe a little less,” Cook told the employees. “And in Europe, I’m sure that we will also source from Europe as those plans become more apparent,” he said at the meeting.

Cook is likely referring to an Arizona factory that will be run by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Apple’s exclusive chip-manufacturing partner. That plant is slated for a 2024 opening. And TSMC is already eyeing a second US facility, as part of a broader push to increase chip production in the country.

The US government is dangling roughly $50 billion in incentives — part of legislation known as the Chips and Science Act — to encourage semiconductor manufacturing to expand stateside. The iPhone maker currently sources its device processors from TSMC plants located in Taiwan, an area with an outsized share of production. During the meeting, Cook said that 60% of the world’s processor supply comes out of Taiwan. The chips are designed by Apple and then manufactured by TSMC.