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On Monday, a well-known person who made accurate predictions about Apple's plans claimed that reports that next year's iPhone 17 will use TSMC's next-generation 2-nanometer process are "fake news." According to a post by Weibo user "手机芯片专家", the 2-nanometer process will not be put into mass production until the end of 2025. The user, who claims to have 25 years of experience in the integrated circuit industry (including Intel Pentium processors), believes that the iPhone 17 will still use TSMC's 3-nanometer process.

"The 2nm process will not be mass-produced until the end of 2025, so the iPhone 17 will definitely not catch up." The post from the mobile phone chip expert said. "The 2nm processor will not be used until the iPhone 18."

"Anyone who has seen the production capacity planning chart knows that this is another report by an unscrupulous media."

TSMC plans to start mass production of 2-nanometer chips next year, and the company is believed to have been speeding up the process to ensure stable output before mass production. Apple is a major customer of TSMC and is usually the first to get TSMC's new chips. For example, Apple acquired all of TSMC's 3-nanometer chips in 2023 for use in iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

The 2-nanometer manufacturing process, also known as "N2," is expected to be 10% to 15% faster at the same power consumption, or 25% to 30% lower at the same speed, compared to chips made using the supplier's 3-nanometer technology. The A17 Pro chip in Apple's iPhone 15 Pro models is manufactured using TSMC's first-generation 3nm process (N3B). Apple's M4 chip, which recently debuted in the new iPad Pro, uses an enhanced version of this 3-nanometer technology.

The code in iOS 18 has confirmed that all four iPhone 16 models will use Apple's next-generation A18 chip, which is based on TSMC's N3E process. N3E is TSMC's second-generation 3nm chip manufacturing process, which has lower costs and higher yields than TSMC's first-generation 3nm process.

The Weibo user who questioned whether the 2nm process would be ready for the iPhone 17 has a track record of accurate predictions. He previously said that the iPhone 7 would be waterproof, the standard iPhone 14 model would continue to use the A15 Bionic chip, and the more advanced A16 chip would be exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro models. These predictions were later confirmed by multiple reliable sources and proved to be correct when the products were released.

Recently, Phone Chip Expert was the first to report that Apple is using TSMC's 3nm process to develop its own AI server processor, with the goal of achieving mass production in the second half of 2025.