Apple to Begin Sourcing Chips in the U.S., Arizona Plant to Open in 2024

Apple is reportedly working to begin sourcing chips from its own backyard in the U.S. In a further attempt to diversify its manufacturing and supply chain away from China, the Cupertino company is planning to operate an Arizona plant in 2024.

During a meeting in Germany with Apple engineers, Apple CEO Tim Cook disclosed the news that Apple is pivoting its chip sourcing away from the Asian markets. To do so, the company is ramping up its own U.S.-made plant to manufacture chips, according to Bloomberg.

“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 said to the engineering team.”And in Europe, I’m sure that we will also source from Europe as those plans become more apparent,” he said at the meeting, which included Apple services chief Eddy Cue and Deirdre O’Brien, its head of retail and human resources.”

During his latest tour across Europe, Cook did not divulge any additional information on the chips Apple plans to source within Arizona.

It should come as no surprise that Apple is eyeing Arizona as a prospective site for its U.S. chip sourcing. Long-time supplies Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is currently building its own plant in Arizona. The Apple supplier first broke ground on the project in 2020. The plan was to have the plant in operation by 2024. However, TSMC did face some construction delays due to a shortage in labour and COVID-19.

While Cook himself did not specify, it would make sense that Apple’s U.S. sourcing would come from TSMC when its plant is operational. TSMC currently helps supply Apple’s A-series chips. The Arizona plant project cost the company $12 billion USD (roughly $15.9 billion CAD). It’s expected that TSMC will produce 4-nanometer chips for Apple while working on the next generation of 3-nanometer chips for future products.