This is not standard practice.
TSMC has taken the unusual step of not charging Apple for defective Apple A17 Bionic 3nm SoCs for the iPhone 15 Pro, according to The Information.
The iPhone 15 Pro is rumored to feature the A17 Bionic, Apple’s first SoC to be built using a 3nm process that allows even tighter transistor placement for improved performance and efficiency.
How Apple saves billions of dollars on single-chip systems for the iPhone 15 Pro.
The use of a finer manufacturing process involves the production of a large number of defective chips until the manufacturing process can be improved. According to The Information, TSMC only charges Apple for known-good SoCs, but does not charge for defective chips. This is an unconventional approach as TSMC customers typically have to pay for the wafer and all the dies it contains, including defective ones.
Presumably, TSMC can recover the cost of defective chips due to the huge number of orders from Apple. In addition, it is Apple, as the main customer, that helps TSMC pay for the research and development of new components, as well as equipment for their production.
