Speaking to reporters on Monday in Taipei, Morris Chang said the 3-nanometre plant would be located at the same Arizona site as the 5-nanometre plant.
"Three-nanometre, TSMC right now has a plan, but it has not been completely finalized," Chang, who has retired from TSMC but remains influential in the company, told Reuters. "It has almost been finalized - in the same Arizona site, phase two. Five-nanometre is phase one, 3-nanometre is phase two."
According to rumors, Apple will begin using the 3nm technology for its proprietary silicon with the M2 Pro or M3 processor. Both Apple's M3 processor for Macs and A17 chip for the iPhone 15 Pro models are anticipated to be produced using the improved 3nm technology from TSMC. The M2 Pro is anticipated to be utilized in revisions to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros as well as a high-end Mac mini next year, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Future Macs and iPhones will run quicker and have longer battery lives because of the switch to a more modern process, which normally improves performance and power efficiency. According to TSMC, When compared to its predecessor, 3nm technology, also known as N3, will increase logic density by up to 70%, enhance speed by up to 15% while using the same amount of power, and save power by up to 30% while maintaining the same speed. According to the company, volume manufacturing is what it is aiming for in the second part of this year.