TSMC's 3nm process is costly, Apple invests $1 billion per chip

Apple's M3 series chips are the company's first PC processors to be mass-produced using TSMC's latest 3nm process. One analyst estimated that the Tape-Out costs for Apple's M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max processors alone amounted to $1 billion.

The analyst said on Digits to Dollars that Apple spent $1 billion to tape-out the M3 series of chips. This high cost proves that only a few well-funded companies, like Apple, are willing to take on this kind of expense to provide their customers with the best chips in the industry.

It may also explain why Qualcomm and MediaTek haven't moved to the 3nm N3B process yet, and may opt for the N3E process instead. In an earlier report, Apple was said to have contributed about $3.1 billion to TSMC's 3nm revenue.

However, it doesn't mean that Apple will customers bear these costs. Apple's base 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro starts at a whopping $12,999 and only offers 512GB of non-upgradeable storage. So, in some way it has to be recouped somehow.

Therefore, this investment shows that Apple remains committed to staying on top of the PC market and continues to invest in state-of-the-art technology. $Apple(AAPL.US)$ $Taiwan Semiconductor(TSM.US)$