Apple's A20 Chip Could Be Quite Expensive At $280 Per Unit

The smartphone industry may see a major shift this year in terms of pricing. The majority of the credit goes to the DRAM, and then comes the chip costs. The year 2026 will see a breakthrough into the 2nm era. Apple has reportedly booked more than half of TSMC’s 2nm capacity. But this could come at a price, as a new report claims that Apple’s A20 chip could be the company’s most expensive silicon to date.

Apple’s A20 chip will reportedly see an 80% price hike over the A19 chip

According to a new report from Taiwan, the upcoming A20 chip will cost Apple a massive $280 per unit . This apparently accounts for a year-over-year increase of more than 80% over the A19 chip that powers the current iPhone 17. Whether this price hike will mean next year’s iPhones getting expensive or Apple taking a hit is something only time will tell.

The price hike could be partly because of memory components getting more expensive, and further strengthened because of TSMC’s employment of the “first-gen nanosheet transistor technology” and “ultra-high-efficiency metal interlayer capacitors” for its N2P fabrication process.

TSMC appears overwhelmed by the demand for its N2P process, which could also be contributing to the staggering increase in the cost of the A20 chip. As said, Apple has reportedly reserved around half of TSMC’s 2nm capacity for its chips. This made things worse for rivals like Qualcomm and MediaTek.

It could be the company’s most expensive silicon to date.

Apple’s A20 chip reportedly features a switch from InFo (Integrated Fan-Out) packaging to WMCM (Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module). While the former allowed for the integration of various components, like DRAM, onto a single die, the latter allows for the combination of multiple individual dies, such as the CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine, onto a single package.

This apparently offers an unmatched level of flexibility due to the large number of die configurations that are available. WMCM can allow Apple to launch the A20 chip with various configurations by employing different CPU and GPU cores. This tech will also apparently allow the CPU, GPU, and the Neural Engine dies to be independent. This way, the power is drawn tailored to a specific task, thereby reducing the overall power consumption.

TSMC’s N2P process is reportedly expected to make the A20 chip’s efficiency cores “more efficient.” This should allow for improved performance. Furthermore, the chip’s GPU could also feature third-gen Dynamic Cache. This should improve the allocation of on-chip memory in real time based on the workload.