Apple is officially ramping up its efforts to build a localized semiconductor supply chain. By the end of 2026, the company plans to purchase over 100 million advanced chips from TSMC’s fabrication plants in Arizona.
This massive purchase makes Apple the anchor client for the facility just north of Phoenix. David Tom, Apple’s global head of procurement, recently confirmed the company intends to buy as much output as the Arizona plant can supply.
Apple is piecing together a local supply chain across multiple states
To understand the scale of this project, you have to look beyond Arizona. Apple is actively encouraging its manufacturing partners to source raw materials domestically. For example, GlobalWafers recently opened a new facility in Sherman, Texas, to produce the blank silicon wafers required for chipmaking.
Once those wafers are patterned with transistors at the TSMC plant, they will head to a nearby $7 billion advanced packaging facility built by Amkor Technology to be prepped for final consumer devices.
What this really means is that the tech giant is moving beyond just final assembly to actually rooting the foundational steps of chipmaking in the United States. The company is even moving assembly operations for the Mac mini from Asia to a facility in Houston, Texas, later this year.
Flagship devices will still rely heavily on overseas production for years
Despite these localized milestones, a complete shift away from Asian manufacturing is not happening anytime soon. TSMC’s Arizona plants currently produce four-nanometer and five-nanometer chips. While these components are widely used across various Apple devices, the flagship iPhones and Macs require smaller and far more advanced architecture.
Production for the latest two-nanometer chips remains firmly locked to TSMC’s primary facilities in Taiwan. The Arizona site is not expected to handle that level of fabrication until at least 2030.
For now, Apple is focusing its American efforts on mature nodes and foundational components to ensure a steady supply of hardware over the next decade.
