Apple is no longer the biggest client for chip foundry TSMC, and as it loses its stranglehold on the global supply chain, Tim Cook may have to turn to other manufacturers to meet demand for the iPhone and Mac.
As previously reported, Nvidia is now the single largest client for TSMC, but losing that top spot is causing problems for Apple. Specifically, it no longer has the buying power to commandeer TSMC's entire output.
According to the Wall Street Journal, this means Apple is therefore having to compete for capacity with firms such as Nvidia, and it is not getting what it needs. Tim Cook alluded to this in Apple's latest earnings call, dismissing questions about memory shortages by saying the company is more concerned with processors.
Cook would not give further details in that earnings call, and the new report does not include any comments from either Apple or TSMC. But unspecified sources in the supply chain claim that Apple is looking for alternatives.
In particular, Apple is exploring whether rival foundries could manufacture lower-end processors. There is no information about what devices that could apply to, but conceivably it could include the non-Pro versions of the iPhone.
While there is no mention of this in the new report, it has separately been reported that Apple may return to using Intel. It's not that Apple would do another processor transition over to Intel chips, but rather that Intel would manufacture existing processor designs for the company.
Apple also previously used Samsung to manufacture the A4 through A9. That deal continued through to the A9 in 2015, after Apple had begun working with TSMC.
More recently, Apple itself revealed in August 2025 that it was working with Samsung on "an innovative new technology for making chips." Announced as part of its US manufacturing program, Apple said the work was being done at Samsung's semiconductor plant in Austin, Texas.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also believes that a lower-end M7 processor could be made in the USA by Intel. He believes this could happen as soon as 2027 but it's not clear if Intel has the capacity, the foundry, or the funds to build a new facility in the US to do that.
Nvidia's rise is directly because of the demand for AI processors. Even if that is not a bubble that is about to burst, it surely won't keep growing.
Apple's iPhone presents a more steady — and predictable — demand for processors. It is possible that Apple may once again become TSMC's biggest client at some point.
Even so, Apple has traditionally preferred to use multiple suppliers when it cannot manufacture components itself. It's partly because over-reliance on one source can cause significant problems.
But it's also because Apple tends to play suppliers off against each other, working to get the lowest possible prices for components such as memory.
Consequently, even if Apple is now being forced to look to Intel or others as alternative processor manufacturers, it's likely to continue using them. That means the end of the exclusive deal between Apple and TSMC, that has run since at least 2014.
