Many rumors have suggested that the Apple A9 that’s expected to power the company’s next-generation iPhone will be manufactured by Samsung, which has a long history of manufacturing Apple’s components. However, newer rumors indicate that TSMC will be the primary manufacturer of the A9 chips while Samsung will simply be a backup in the event that TSMC runs into any issues.
News reports and rumors have gone back and forth multiple times over whether Samsung or the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will produce the A9 chips designed for use in next-generation iOS devices as the two companies compete for Apple’s business. In December, a report suggested Samsung had already begun production on the A9 chips, but a new analyst prediction shared by the Taipei Times suggests that TSMC, not Samsung, may be Apple’s main A9 chip supplier due to its more favorable production yield. While one company will win the right to produce the bulk of Apple’s next-generation chips, Apple may spread orders of the A9 processor across multiple suppliers in order to cut down on risk. The best yield results in the lowest price for Apple, so the company that manages to produce the most usable chips from a single wafer (a semiconductor material) will likely win the bulk of orders from Apple.
