Rumor: Intel uses TSMC’s 3nm process for laptop and server CPUs

Apple and Intel are the first manufacturers to have chips produced on TSMC’s 3nm process, sources tell Nikkei Asia. Apple would use 3nm chips in iPads and Intel would like to make 3nm chips for laptops and servers.

TSMC’s first product with a 3nm chip is likely to be an iPad, Nikkei Asia sources say . It would be a model that will be released in the second half of 2022. In the same year, Apple would equip its iPhones with 4nm chips. The iPhones that come out this year will probably have 5nm chips.

According to the sources, Intel is working with TSMC on “at least two projects” that use the 3nm process. It would be chips for laptops and servers. Mass production is expected at the end of 2022 at the earliest. The sources state that Intel will purchase more 3nm chips from TSMC than Apple.

Intel confirms in a response to Nikkei Asia that it is collaborating with TSMC for products that will be released in 2023, but details about which products these are and on which process they are made, the manufacturer does not provide. Apple and TSMC did not respond substantively.

TSMC reported at the beginning of this year that the development of its 3nm process is on schedule and that test production will start this year. Mass production is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2022.