Welcome to 995 Mac Daily for Thursday, October 23, 2025.

I'm your host, Chance Miller.

We are sponsored this week by Backblaze.

Leading off today this fall, Apple raised entry prices for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air

higher to their equivalent predecessors, although it did also increase the base

amount of storage in those phones. But now a new report from the China Times says that we could

see even more pricing changes next year due to the new A20 chip Apple hopes to use in the

2026 iPhone lineup.

The China Times piece outlines how growing demand and new fabrication processes have led to increase costs for TSM and its partners over time.

TSM is Apple's partner in designing and fabricating the A-series chips used in iPhones.

But next year, it seems, is when the increases could get especially significant.

Apple's A-20 chip used in next year's iPhone lineup is widely expected to use a new cutting-edge 2-anometer process.

This would make it the first widely available 2-anometer chip.

According to the report, TSM has told its customers, including Apple, to expect pricing that is at least 50% higher than the current three nanometer chips used in A-series processors today.

TSM has apparently poured significant capital into the development of this new two nanometer

process, and as such, it's not willing to discount or negotiate on costs like it might normally do.

Apple and TSM don't disclose any of the financial details of their relationship, but if it's

true that this A20 chip is 50% more expensive than the A19 chip, it's hard to

imagine that Apple would stomach that cost itself, rather than pass on at least some of it,

to the consumer. Another possibility is that Apple limits the two nanometer chips to its highest

end iPhone Pro and perhaps iPhone fold models, while the rest of the iPhone lineup will use a three nanometer chips to its highest end iPhone Pro and perhaps iPhone fold models, while the rest of

the iPhone lineup will use a three nanometer technology similar to what we have today.

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