According to Tom's Hardware , building a 2nm chip manufacturing facility with a capacity of 50,000 silicon wafers per month would cost investors $28 billion, compared to the $20 billion needed to build a similar manufacturing facility for 3nm chips.
Rising 2nm chip manufacturing costs will cost customers more
The reason for this cost increase stems from the need for more extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, which are extremely expensive. Chipmakers will eventually be forced to pass these costs on to manufacturing, leaving customers with significantly higher prices.
For Apple in particular, a 300mm silicon wafer with a 2nm chip would cost $30,000 if manufactured by TSMC, while a similar wafer with a 3nm chip would cost $20,000 per wafer. TSMC's other customers would have a harder time demanding such prices.
Analysts at IBS said that each A17 Pro chip manufactured on TSMC's 3nm process will cost about $40, but the cost to Apple will be around $50/unit due to the defect rate. Based on its calculations, IBS said that the cost to produce a 2nm chip will be $60/unit, while the cost to Apple will be around $85/unit.
Some earlier forecasts put the price of a 2nm silicon wafer at $25,000, so the range could be quite wide. The rising cost trend is hitting developers of monolithic chips harder. Moving to multi-chip layouts can significantly reduce costs, but requires higher-quality chip packaging.
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