TSMC increases silicon costs for Apple, includes A16, A17, A18, A19, M3, M4, and new M5 chips

TSMC is increasing the price of its silicon prices in 2026, informing Apple and other clients of 8-10% price increases for the year ahead.

TSMC increases silicon costs for Apple, includes A16, A17, A18, A19, M3, M4, and new M5 chips
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Gaming Editor
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TL;DR: TSMC will raise prices by 5-10% in 2026 for its advanced sub-5nm chip fabrication, including the costly 2nm process. This increase will impact Apple Silicon chips like the A16 through A20 and M3 through M5, leading to higher production costs and more expensive future iPhone models.

TSMC is continuing to raise the price of the silicon it makes in 2026, with Apple's entire fleet of Apple Silicon to be more expensive, as TSMC costs in making its 2nm node process, and its overall tight capacity forcing the move.

TSMC increases silicon costs for Apple, includes A16, A17, A18, A19, M3, M4, and new M5 chips 12
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The rumor started on the Naver platform, known as "Yeux1122's Blog" which now reports that TSMC has informed its major clients -- including Apple -- that there are imminent price hikes for sub-5nm advanced chip fabrication processes. We are told to expect price increases of between 5-10%, with the new prices to take effect in 2026.

Most Apple Silicon will be more expensive to make, with the Apple A16, A17, A18, A19, M3, M4, and M5 chips all being fabbed on TSMC's sub-5nm process nodes. It was only a couple of months ago in September 2025 that the China Times reported that Apple's next-generation A20 processor, which will be fabbed on TSMC's bleeding-edge 2nm process node and inside of the next-gen iPhone 18, will be one of the most expensive chips to ever power an iPhone.

TSMC's new 2nm process node is expected to be considerably more expensive than 3nm, with the report suggesting that all chips fabbed on TSMC's new 2nm node would cost an average of $280. DigiTimes reported back in 2024 that the A18 chip fabbed on TSMC's 3nm node cost around $45 per unit, with Apple's total Bill of Materials (BoM) for the iPhone 16 at around $416, while the iPhone 16 retailed for $799.

We should expect the iPhone 18 powered by its new A20 series processor to be even more expensive than the just-released iPhone 17 series, when it drops in September 2026.