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Samsung has a reported role manufacturing some chips for Apple, but the available reporting does not identify which chips. It does not establish that Samsung has resumed making the main processor in an iPhone. The key distinction is that Apple designs chips for its devices, while a foundry such as Samsung or TSMC manufactures chip designs for customers.
What chips does Samsung make for Apple?
A report published by Cinco Días / El País on August 7, 2025 described Apple-related chip manufacturing at Samsung’s Austin facility. It did not name the chip types. That supports saying Samsung was reported to be manufacturing some chips for Apple; it does not establish that those chips are an iPhone A-series processor, an M-series processor, or any other particular product.
Apple has separately said that mass production of Apple chips began at TSMC’s Arizona facility in January 2025, and described Apple as that facility’s largest customer. Those statements, made in Apple’s February 24, 2025 announcement, show TSMC’s continuing importance to Apple, but do not mean every Apple chip is made in Arizona or on one particular process.
Does Samsung make Apple’s iPhone chips?
Historically, Samsung manufactured some earlier Apple mobile processors. Apple later shifted mobile processor production toward TSMC, a broad trajectory discussed in a RAND report. The source does not establish a complete generation-by-generation timeline or a definitive transition date, so it is not a basis for assigning every past iPhone processor to a specific foundry.
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For the present, the evidence here does not confirm that Samsung makes the principal processor in any current iPhone. The 2025 Austin report leaves the chip types unspecified. A manufacturing relationship can exist without Samsung taking over a phone’s main processor.
Why can Apple use Samsung and TSMC?
Chip design and chip fabrication are different jobs. Apple designs silicon for its products; a foundry manufactures a customer’s design using its production processes. TSMC describes foundries as manufacturing semiconductors for customers in its 2025 Form 20-F. Samsung likewise describes its foundry operation as customer-oriented manufacturing, separate from its own semiconductor products, on its Foundry business page.
Samsung can therefore compete with Apple in consumer electronics while also manufacturing chips for Apple. The customer’s design and the foundry’s manufacturing service are distinct parts of the supply chain; a commercial manufacturing relationship does not imply that Samsung designed the Apple chip.
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How should you compare Samsung Foundry and TSMC?
There is no sound apples-to-apples yield, defect-rate, or performance comparison established here. A process-node label alone cannot tell you which foundry is better for a specific Apple chip. Relevant considerations include the maturity of the exact process, volume capacity, advanced packaging, location and supply resilience, customer access, and fit with the chip’s design.
Samsung describes a foundry network spanning Korea and the United States, with production for legacy and advanced semiconductors on its company information page. TSMC reported that its 2-nanometer technology entered volume production during 2025 in its 2025 Form 20-F. Neither fact alone establishes the performance, efficiency, cost, or yield of a particular Apple chip.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What Samsung’s other chip businesses do—and don’t—tell us
Samsung’s semiconductor business includes both foundry services and its own products, including memory. That broad portfolio is not evidence that Samsung supplies a specific Apple memory or other component. For example, Samsung’s collaboration announcement with Broadcom names Broadcom, not Apple; it cannot establish an Apple sourcing arrangement.
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