A deadly earthquake that struck Taiwan Wednesday led Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to halt its operations.
The Apple chipmaker evacuated its plants after the 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck, Bloomberg reports.
The earthquake, the strongest in 25 years, caused infrastructure damage at several of the company’s sites, leading it to halt operations. This includes the N3 fab in Tainan, which faced broken beans and columns, according to MacRumors.
Some of Apple’s high-end chips, including the 3nm A17 found in iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, are among TSMC’s work that require round-the-clock care.
“Some of the high-end chips need 24/7 seamless operations in a vacuum state for a few weeks,” according to Barclays analysts Bum Ki Son and Brian Tan. “Operation halts in Taiwan’s northern industrial areas could mean some high-end chips in production may be spoiled.”
TSMC also provides Apple with the custom silicon processors it uses in its devices. It’s unclear what delays, if any, the natural disaster has caused in Apple’s supply chain. Bloomberg reports the company is assessing the damage.
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