Apple is evaluating new manufacturing options for its Apple Silicon lineup, which spans A-Series chips in iPhones and low-power MacBooks to M-Series SoCs in iPads and higher-end Macs. TSMC has traditionally produced these custom processors, but Apple has been in talks with both Intel Foundry and Samsung Foundry to manufacture some of its chips in the coming months.
Apple has been exploring Intel’s 18A-P process design kits and has used version 0.9.1 of the PDK designed for Intel’s 18A-P node. With performance, density, power, and other metrics meeting expectations, Intel could become Apple’s source for advanced node production by 2027. Apple is reportedly waiting for Intel to release the 18A-P PDK version 1.0, which is on track to launch in the first half of 2026 or may have already been released to partners.
Once available, Apple plans to start with the lowest-end M-series chip, used in MacBook Air and iPad Pro devices. This node is particularly interesting due to its performance characteristics, as the 18A-P can deliver a 9% performance increase at the same power level or achieve 18% power savings at the same performance level compared to the standard 18A. Coupled with better thermal conductivity, these designs should offer improved heat dissipation and performance compared to what Apple currently achieves with TSMC’s 3 nm process in the M5 SoC.
