Apple may place an order with TSMC for more than $33 billion this year. 2nm is the key.

[CNMO Technology News] According to Taiwan Province’s "Economic Daily" quoted analysts, global consumer electronics giant Apple may purchase chip orders with a total amount of NT$ 1 trillion (about US$ 33 billion) from TSMC in 2025, which will become an important driving force for TSMC’s revenue growth. The analysis pointed out that this estimate is based on the background that TSMC’s share in Apple products continues to increase and its wafer fab in Arizona is about to play a key role.

Apple CEO Cook has repeatedly stressed that Apple is the biggest customer of TSMC’s Arizona plant. With TSMC’s continuous lead in advanced process, its upcoming 2 nm process is expected to be the main factor to increase Apple’s order amount.

The data shows that in TSMC’s revenue in the first quarter of 2025, the 3 nm process contributed 22%, a significant increase of 13 percentage points compared with 9% in the same period of 2024; However, the contribution of 5 nm and 7 nm processes decreased by 1 and 4 percentage points respectively. Analysts pointed out that the growth of 3 nm revenue is mainly due to Apple’s extensive use of this process for iPhone chips, and future 2 nm orders are expected to bring greater growth momentum.

According to reports, Apple’s purchase of chips from TSMC in 2024 was about NT$ 624 billion. If orders increase to 1 trillion yuan in 2025, it will mean an annual growth rate of 60%. However, analysts believe that the order amount in 2025 may fluctuate between 800 billion yuan and 1 trillion yuan, depending on the mass production progress of TSMC’s 2 nm process and the capacity climb of Arizona plant. If the median is 900 billion yuan, the annual growth rate will also reach 44%.

TSMC’s total revenue in 2024 was 90 billion US dollars. If Apple’s orders meet expectations, it will significantly increase Apple’s proportion in TSMC’s overall revenue and further consolidate its position as the largest customer.

At present, TSMC is facing fierce competition from Samsung and Intel in the field of advanced process. Among them, Intel plans to mass-produce the 18A process in 2025, trying to gain a share in the wafer foundry market. However, TSMC continues to be the most advanced wafer foundry in the world with its 2-nanometer process based on the new generation ring grid (GAA) architecture.