Apple’s 2026 iPhone 18 will use a next-generation A20 chip that will be produced using TSMC’s 2nm manufacturing process. Although the chip should gain impressive performance and power efficiency improvements, it will also likely see impressive increases in cost, which Apple could pass on to iPhone buyers.
Weibo-based leaker Digital Chat Station, citing sources in the Chinese supply chain, has made comments that agree with previous statements by industry analysts Ming-Chi Kuo and Jeff Pu, who both said Apple is planning to use TSMC’s advanced 2nm fabrication process in the 2026 iPhone lineup.
“Next year, Apple/Qualcomm/Mittec will be launched on TSMC 2nm,” wrote the leaker on Weibo. “It is expected that the cost will increase significantly, and the price of the new machine may increase again.”
When Apple switched from chips using TSMC’s 5nm process to those based on its 3nm process, the move saw the iPhone seeing 20% faster GPU speeds, a 10% bump in CPU speed, and a 2x jump for the iPhone’s Neural Engine. Similar performance improvements were reported for the Mac.
The 2025 iPhone 17 lineup, which will be unveiled in September, is expected to use chips fabricated using an enhanced version of TSMC’s 3nm process, called N3P.
“3nm” and “2nm” describe TSMC’s chip manufacturing technology. The lower the numbers, the smaller the transistor sizes, allowing more transistors to be packed onto a single chip. This usually results in faster processing speeds and improved power efficiency.
While Apple will be the first to benefit from the new 2nm process, it will also pay a premium to use the process, likely leading to higher retail prices for the iPhone 18. Any 2nm-related price increases would be in addition to any tariffs the company may be paying to import their devices from China.
While U.S. President Trump announced this week that he had given Apple a reprieve from his 145% tariff impacting goods imported from China and the 10% tariff on goods imported from other countries, that reprieve could be short-lived.
President Trump is reportedly working on new semiconductor tariffs that will likely affect all of Apple devices. Trump has said that no one is “getting off the hook” and there “was no tariff exception.” Apple and other tech companies are “just moving to a different tariff bucket,” said Trump.
