Inside Apple’s Multibillion-Dollar Push to Make Chips in the U.S. | WSJ (Level 1)

Every electronic device in your home uses computer chips. For a long time, most of these chips were made in Asia. Now, companies like Apple want to make them in the United States. This change is happening to keep the supply chain safe. The process begins with sand. A factory in the American Southwest melts silicon at very high temperatures. They turn this material into round plates called wafers. Apple checks these wafers carefully to make sure they are perfect. Next, the wafers go to a big factory in Arizona run by a company called TSMC. This factory uses huge machines to turn the blank wafers into powerful computer chips. It is a very difficult and expensive job. Finally, the chips are sent to a factory in Texas. Here, workers put the chips into computers like the Mac Mini. This is a good start, but it will take many years for the United States to make as many chips as Asia.