Render of a possible iPhone 18.
A new report claims that the manufacturing cost of the 2nm processor expected in the iPhone 18 range may mean Apple having to raise prices.
It’s bad enough that tariffs may still force Apple to raise prices, and it’s bad enough that the expected iPhone Fold will cost over $2,000. Now a further report backs up previous claims that the whole iPhone 18 range may be costlier than its predecessors.
Backing up a report from September 2024, leaker “Digital Chat Station” has now claimed on Weibo that there could be significant price increases for the 2026 iPhone models.
“Next year, Apple/Qualcomm/Mittec will be launched on TSMC 2nm,” writes the leaker on Weibo (in translation). “It is expected that the cost will increase significantly, and the price of the new machine may increase again.”
The reason is specifically the manufacturing cost of the new 2nm processor. In the September 2024 report by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, it was initially said that the costs were high in part because of the low yield of the production process.
Kuo at first claimed that this meant Apple would limit the 2nm processor to the iPhone 18 Pro, and it was conceivable that it would actually only be in the iPhone 18 Pro Max.
However, in March 2025, Kuo revised his prediction because of what he said were greatly improved yields. He said that TSMC had reached 60% to 70% yields by January 2025, and by March were “well above that.”
Consequently, Kuo then believed that it was possible Apple would use the 2nm processor across the entire iPhone 18 range. That fit with claims from other analysts, too.
If correct, the benefit of the 2nm processor is that it should provide between a 10% and 15% performance boost over the forthcoming iPhone 17 range. However, if Digital Chat Station is correct, it will also bring an unknown price hike.
Note that Digital Chat Station has a fairly good track record for Apple leaks. Most recently, he or she has been reporting about under-display Face ID for a foldable iPad, and also for the iPhone fold.
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