For the past few iPhone generations, TSMC has reportedly been the exclusive supplier to Apple for their A-series chipsets. Prior to that, both Samsung and TSMC were producing the chipsets for Apple. Now it looks like TSMC’s exclusive deal with Apple could continue into 2019, according to a report from EE Times.This means that TSMC’s exclusivity with Apple would run for four generations of iOS devices, where the company’s exclusive deal kicked off in 2016 with the A10 used in the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, followed by the A11 in last year’s iPhones, and the A12 in this year’s iPhones, and now presumably the A13 in 2019’s iPhones.
Speaking to EE Times in an interview, Arete Research analyst Brett Simpson said, “As long as TSMC continues to offer something new at leading-edge every year and continues to execute well on yield, I could see Apple remaining sole source on foundry at TSMC for years to come.” We have previously heard that Samsung was trying to win some orders for 2019’s A13 chipset, but this report seems to cast some doubt on whether or not that will happen.
Credit Suisse analyst Randy Abrams adds, “Apple and TSMC have mutually benefited to date from the relationship; Apple has been able to have annual upgrades to its processors, and TSMC has a very large anchor customer to bring it up to scale on its new nodes.”