Apple Secures 100 Million U.S.-Made Chips From TSMC, Plans Mac mini Assembly in Texas [Report]

Apple is using its purchasing power to help build out semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. The company is committing to multibillion-dollar facilities across the American Southwest as it works to reduce reliance on overseas production.



At the center of this effort is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and its expansion north of Phoenix, Arizona. TSMC is spending roughly $165 billion to construct up to six fabrication plants on the site, making it one of the largest construction projects in the United States. Apple is currently the anchor client for this location. David Tom, Apple's global head of procurement, recently told the Wall Street Journal that the company is buying as much of the output of the facility as it can. Apple expects to purchase over 100 million chips from the Arizona plant this year alone, securing a significant allocation of the factory's output for its devices. Even so, the total accounts for only a small share of Apple's overall chip demand.


This aggressive procurement strategy fulfills part of the pledge Apple made last year to invest $600 billion in the U.S. economy over a four-year period. While that figure includes corporate salaries and retail operations, a significant portion is being directed toward hardware infrastructure. Apple is supporting suppliers across the chipmaking process in an effort to expand domestic capacity.

The domestic pipeline starts in Sherman, Texas, where a Taiwanese company called GlobalWafers operates a massive new plant. The facility grows heavy silicon ingots and slices them into blank wafers. Apple helps sustain this operation by directing its foundry partners to purchase materials directly from the Texas site. Once those wafers are patterned with trillions of transistors at the TSMC fab in Arizona, they will soon travel just down the road for final preparation. Amkor Technology is building a $7 billion packaging facility nearby with direct investment from Apple. Slated to open in 2027, the site will dice the wafers and attach the necessary connectors so the chips can be installed into consumer devices.

Apple is also expanding final assembly operations within the United States. The company recently began shipping AI servers from a dedicated facility in Houston operated alongside Foxconn. That site currently outputs roughly ten servers per hour to power Apple Intelligence features. Executives also confirmed that Foxconn is converting an adjacent warehouse into 200,000 square feet of manufacturing space specifically to assemble the Mac mini later this year.



Apple Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan indicated that the company is confident in the Houston Mac mini project. He noted that the Mac mini sees higher and more consistent consumer demand compared to the high-end Mac Pro, which struggled to maintain momentum after Apple shifted its production to Austin over a decade ago.


Despite these localized milestones, Apple still relies heavily on Taiwan for its most critical hardware. To put the scale into perspective, TSMC operates four primary facilities in Taiwan that each produce more than 100,000 wafers a month. The Arizona project will not match that volume until all six planned fabs are operational. Furthermore, TSMC's Arizona facilities currently manufacture four and five nanometer chips. While these nodes are widely used across Apple's lineup, Apple requires smaller nodes for its flagship hardware. Production for the 2-nanometer A20 chip remains locked to TSMC's overseas factories, and the Arizona site is not expected to handle 2-nanometer fabrication until at least 2030.

For now, Apple has no immediate plans to reshore iPhone assembly. Khan stressed that the company is focusing its domestic efforts on areas that will differentiate its products over time, specifically targeting components, sub-assemblies, and advanced silicon. By concentrating on these foundational areas, Apple is also encouraging TSMC to continue accelerating construction on American soil.