Nikkei Asia reports that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s most important plant for supplying Apple processors has been hit by gas contamination in the chipmaking process.
TSMC’s Fab 18 is the company’s most advanced chipmaking facility, and it’s where the processors of the upcoming iPhones and Macs are produced, according to industry sources.
“Some TSMC production lines in the South Taiwan Science Park received certain gases from suppliers that are believed to be contaminated. These were quickly replaced with other gas supplies,” the company told Nikkei, adding that the contamination was discovered on Thursday night.
Even though, sources familiar with the matter said the gas contamination “affected the chip manufacturing process in a limited way.”
This happens in a moment where suppliers are finalizing components and preparing to begin final assembly for the latest Apple products.
Recently, in Apple’s earnings call, CEO Tim Cook and CFO Lucas Maestri warned supply constraints will impact iPhone and iPad this fall.
“We expect supply constraints during the September quarter to be greater than what we experienced during the June quarter. The constraints will primarily impact iPhone and iPad,” Maestri said on the call.
Notably, this is not the first time Apple has warned against supply constraints. Last quarter, the company said that iPad and Mac constraints could cost the company somewhere to the tune of $3 billion to $4 billion in revenue. Maestri said during the earnings call this week that the impact ended up being toward the lower end of that range, but that the situation will worsen in Q4.
Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 13 line by September, while a new MacBook Pro could be unveiled in the months following the iPhone and Apple Watch launch.
Here’s our full roundup of all the rumors regarding the iPhone 13 here and what to expect about the upcoming MacBook Pro here.
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