Apple’s Jeff Williams lauds TSMC’s relationship at 30th anniversary celebration

Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) is now 30 years old, becoming a giant in the industry recently due to its close relationship with Apple. Apple COO Jeff Williams spoke at the company’s 30th anniversary celebration, lauding the company for that relationship and also talking about how artificial intelligence will have major implications for the future.

Williams talked about TSMC’s willingness to invest in plant that has helped both companies thrive. “TSMC invested $9 billion and had 6000 people working around the clock to bring up a … fab in a record 11 months — and in the end the execution was flawless. We’ve gone on to ship over. half a billion chips together in that short window.” Williams remarked while thanking TSMC CEOs Mark Liu and C.C. Wei. “There are not many companies that will spend $9 billion on a single bet.”

In his remarks, Williams noted the iPhone’s impact on the world as well as TSMC’s contribution to the device, and talked about the future impact of artificial intelligence. “If in the next ten years, from a society standpoint, we just do a few “gee-whiz” things like flying car kinds of dreams, and then the rest of the time we’re using the faster chips to do the same things we’re doing faster, we will have squandered one of the biggest opportunities in front of us. I think we’re at an inflection point, much like my colleagues, with on-device computing, coupled with the potential of AI, to really, really change the world. And we couldn’t be more excited about it at Apple.”