Apple reveals US chipmaking behind-the-scenes process

Source: 9to5Mac

This week Apple announced an acceleration of its U.S. manufacturing efforts, including some Mac mini production coming stateside. Now, via The Wall Street Journal, the company has offered a behind‑the‑scenes look at its U.S. chipmaking process.

WSJ took tour of Apple chipmaking partner facilities in US

Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal broke news of Mac mini production coming to the U.S. later this year. Journalist Rolfe Winkler followed up with a new article about how “Apple took me on a tour of partner facilities to see the rebirth of the chip supply chain in the U.S.”

The full article offers in‑depth details on the various processes involved in Apple’s chip production in the U.S., including visits to:

• GlobalWafers America’s new Sherman, TX facility
• TSMC’s chipmaking foundry in Arizona
• Foxconn’s facility in Houston, TX for final assembly

You can read it here with a WSJ subscription, or via Apple News+ here.

GlobalWafers facility details

The start of the supply chain is GlobalWafers America in Sherman, Texas. It takes purified silicon rocks—sourced, for example, from sand in North Carolina—and fashions them into 12‑inch wafers that will later be imprinted with trillions of transistors to become chips.

• The rocks are melted at 2,500 °F to form perfect silicon crystals inside a 35‑foot‑tall machine called a crystal puller.
• The crystal puller grows silicon crystals into cylindrical ingots weighing hundreds of pounds.
• The ingots are cut into wafers with a wire saw, then polished, tested, and boxed for the next stage of the supply chain.

Winkler noted the low visible headcount:

“I didn’t see a lot of workers in these facilities. Chip‑making is highly automated. The U.S. isn’t trying to reshore the industry because it will drive mass employment. It is doing so to address a strategic vulnerability, and that requires operating competitively.”

For more context, see the recent NYT piece about Tim Cook’s CIA briefing on Taiwan.

If you’re interested in Apple’s U.S.-based chipmaking efforts, I highly recommend reading Winkler’s story.