TSMC celebrated the launch of 3nm chip production in Taiwan

Earlier this month, TSMC held an event to mark the start of construction of a semiconductor plant in Arizona, and today in Taiwan the company celebrated the start of mass production of chips on the island.
Notably, such ceremonies are quite unusual for TSMC.According to the publication Focus Taiwan, Taiwan's TSMC today celebrates the beginning of mass production of chips in accordance with the 3-nm process technology.
The Fab 18 plant will start producing the latest and most advanced chips on the territory of South Taiwan Science Park in Tainan.It is very important that such celebratory ceremonies are not typical for TSMC.
Analysts do not rule out that the manufacturer demonstrates loyalty to its native island amid large-scale investments in the United States.
Industry experts say the company is holding the ceremony to show it intends to keep Taiwan as a major hub for chip research, development and manufacturing despite the fact that it is now investing heavily at the other end of the world.Note that Apple will be among the first to receive 3-nm chips.
Although Apple is now claiming the A16 chipset is produced according to the 4nm process, in fact TSMC is treating it as a 5nm variant with some refinements.
The first 3nm chipsets that will be available in Apple products will be the M2 Pro and M2 Max, which will be shipped to Macs in 2023.TSMC factories in Arizona will produce 4nm chips first and only later will produce 3nm chips.
The company's Taiwanese plants will begin producing advanced 3nm products first, with 2nm chipsets due to begin production in 2025.

TSMC feels no downturn in the market - November revenue soared 50.2 percent

TSMC management was optimistic this week about its prospects for contract manufacturing of semiconductor components for US customers, as its budget for building two facilities in Arizona reached $40 billion and its design capacity was tripled.
On a global scale the company also feels good because its November revenue grew by 50.2% compared to the previous year.Image source: TSMCIn accordance with the statistics published by TSMC in November the company made about $7.3 billion in current exchange rates, and this corresponds to the sequential growth of 5.9%, and in annual terms the revenue jumped by 50.2%.
We can not hesitate to call this year a period of significant growth for TSMC, because from January to November the company's revenue grew by 44.6% to $67.6 billion.
For not the easiest year in terms of geopolitics the dynamics is very decent.Let us not forget, however, that not everything is cloudy in TSMC activities.
The amount of capital spending for the current year, it still had to reduce from $40 to $36 billion.
At the last quarterly event the company representatives also complained about the decline in demand for products used in the PC and smartphone segments, some of which are produced on an advanced 7-nm process.
By the middle of next year, the company expects to regain the utilization rate of the respective production lines.
The company also has to postpone the modernization of its facilities due to delays in the supply of lithographic equipment.

If the chip production in Taiwan stops completely, the industry will need at least 5 years to recover

The meeting of top political leaders of China and the US was designed to ease tensions in the Taiwan issue.
A significant portion of semiconductor components are manufactured in Taiwan, and stability in the region is extremely important for the entire global economy.
Some experts believe that in the case of a complete shutdown of Taiwan enterprises, the semiconductor industry will be able to recover only in five years.Image source: TSМSimilar estimates in his interview with Barron's shares the author of the book \"War for chips: the battle for the most important technology in the world\" Chris Miller - Tufts University professor from the United States.
In his opinion, the U.S.
authorities underestimate the possible consequences of a regional conflict that could put Taiwan`s enterprises out of business.
Not only do the island produces up to 90% of advanced semiconductor components, but also the local production volume of chips is so large that no other region in the world can compete with it so far.
Up to a third of the annual increase in computing power in the world is provided by Taiwanese enterprises, according to expert estimates.
In the professor's opinion, the semiconductor crisis of 2020 and 2021, which paralyzed the work of the global automobile industry, is only a pale shadow of the likely problems that an armed conflict involving Taiwan would cause.
Even the PRC's \"nonviolent\" methods of influencing the island's economy can have a significant impact on the determination of Taiwan's leadership to remain independent.By the way, Chris Miller highlights the role of qualified personnel in the formation of the modern semiconductor industry.
The same founder of TSMC, Morris Chang, according to the author of the book, is the man to whom the whole world should be grateful for the technology we now have at our disposal.
For the United States, however, it is important to maintain a sensible immigration policy, since many of the leaders of major technology corporations are migrant workers or their direct descendants, and their role in shaping U.S.
industry and the economy is hard to dispute.

MediaTek will reduce dependence on TSMC by outsourcing chip production to Intel and GlobalFoundries

Reducing dependence on TSMC and its Taiwanese facilities will be an important trend for MediaTek in coming years, as CEO of this mobile processor developer, Rick Tsai, made clear.
The company's CEO explained that the main factor behind this decision will be geographical diversification, as over-reliance on Taiwan concerns not only the company, but also its customers.
Large consumers of semiconductor products, according to Mr.
Tsai, will begin to require chip suppliers to use multiple sources of production: Taiwan will be combined with the U.S.
or Europe.
MediaTek is preparing for the emergence of such requirements and is gradually expanding the geography of its chips production, not just limited to Taiwan.As over time, MediaTek expects to increase the volume of sales of its chips in the U.S.
market, then the localization of production, it is ready to pay close attention.
When TSMC's chip contract manufacturing facility in Arizona will start operating, MediaTek hopes to become its customer.
In addition, the production of processors of this brand will be engaged in GlobalFoundries, which has enterprises in New York State and Singapore.
However, in this case we are talking about the use of not the most advanced lithography, but it is more important to diversify sources.Intel, which has repeatedly reported on cooperation with MediaTek, from the second half of 2024, as explained by Rick Tsai, will provide it with chips, which will be produced by Intel 16 technology in the enterprise in Ireland.
These components will find use in TVs and Wi-Fi routers, and do not require advanced lithography to produce them either.
This market segment is quite large, so the company considers cooperation with Intel in all seriousness.
The head of MediaTek personally observes progress in this area on an almost monthly basis.

TSMC will build another plant in Arizona for $12 billion - 3-nm chips will be produced there

Taiwan's TSMC is preparing to implement another project with multi-billion dollar investments - the company intends to expand the chip factory under construction in Arizona (USA).
In the coming months, the chipmaker plans to announce the construction of an advanced factory north of Phoenix, next to the already under construction facilities that were announced in 2020.
The volume of investments, according to some reports, will be the same as 2 years ago - $ 12 billion.Image source: Maxence Pira/unsplash.comThe company began to actively develop chip production in the U.S.
after Washington has promised semiconductor manufacturers all sorts of grants and incentives for the construction of enterprises on American soil.
Future plant TSMC will produce chips in accordance with the 3-nm process, one of the most advanced to date.In TSMC said that the official ceremony of installation of the first batch of equipment for the manufacture of chips at the first plant in Arizona will be held in December - the beginning of construction was announced two years ago and the beginning of production is scheduled for 2024.
While previously the company was going to produce 5-nm chips in Arizona, now we are talking about more advanced 4-nm variants.
Mass production should begin in 2024.
The timing of commissioning of the second plant is still unknown.The expansion indirectly indicates the manufacturers' optimism about the demand for semiconductors in the long term, even against the backdrop of disappointing market indicators for the current year.
Demand for some chips collapsed after two years of rapid growth during the pandemic, during which demand for computer hardware and electronics skyrocketed.
Many companies, including TSMC, had to go into savings mode and cut capital spending in the short term.Despite the downturn in the industry, semiconductor company executives still expect that in the next decade, global sales will exceed $1 trillion, so intensive investment in manufacturing infrastructure continues, especially since such plans in recent years are actively supported by the United States and Europe, hoping to move the \"center of power\" semiconductor industry from Asia.
Intel and Micron are also trying to save money in the short term, while investing heavily in future projects based on strong demand.This year, the U.S.
has distributed grants for chip production in the amount of $39 billion; the funds themselves will be allocated from next year.
In addition, it also provides tax incentives for equipment for the production of semiconductors.
Europe also intends to increase its production share in the global market of semiconductors up to 20% by 2030.
Large plants typically take several years to build and equip, so companies must make investment decisions in advance.Image source: Robert Murray/unsplash.comThe enormous subsidies in the US and Europe for chip production are a reflection of political leaders realizing their critical importance in the military and civilian sectors.
The active development of the relevant industry in China has caused deep concern in the West, after which the U.S.
stopped promoting the idea of freedom of market relations and imposed tough sanctions on Chinese companies, which include a ban on both exports to the country of advanced chips and equipment for their production.In addition, the United States and its allies are concerned that the most advanced technologies of semiconductors are concentrated in Taiwan, an island that China considers part of its territory.
It is known that in addition to the U.S., TSMC is considering expanding production in Japan and allows the construction of a multibillion-dollar plant in Singapore.

MediaTek unveiled the Dimensity 9200, a 4nm flagship platform with Arm Cortex-X3, ray tracing and Wi-Fi 7

MediaTek unveiled the Dimensity 9200, a flagship mobile single-chip platform that uses the latest solutions for the mobile industry.
It is the first mobile platform to use the Arm Cortex-X3 main core with ARMv9 architecture and a 3.05 GHz operating frequency.
In addition to the Cortex-X3 core, the new chip uses three powerful 2.85 GHz Cortex-A715 cores and four efficient 1.8 GHz Arm Cortex-A510 cores.
The new chip is manufactured according to TSMC's second-generation N4P 4nm process.
Note that the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which will be the main competitor of MediaTek novelty, is rumored to have four core clusters: one Cortex-X3 (3.19 GHz), pairs of Cortex-A715 and A710 (2.8 GHz) and three Cortex-A510 (2.0 GHz).The second breakthrough solution in Dimensity 9200 is the advanced Arm Immortalis-G715 GPU with hardware ray tracing acceleration.
The new flagship platform supports Variable Rate Shading (VRS), that is variable rate shading, which should improve performance.
It also supports LPDDR5X random access memory with data transfer rate up to 8533 Mbit/s and the latest UFS 4.0 ROM.
There is also sixth generation AI processing unit (APU) 690, which provides up to 35% better performance compared to its predecessor, according to ETHZ5.0 benchmark.
It also features up to 30% and 45% reduction in power consumption for image noise removal and upscaling by AI.
The Dimensity 9200 supports up to two displays up to 5K resolution at 60 Hz or 1440p at 144 Hz or 1080p at 240 Hz.
It's also the first chipset to support Wi-Fi 7 at up to 6.5Gbps.
Of course, 5G networks are supported - both up to 6 GHz and millimeter band (mmWave), Bluetooth 5.3 is also provided.The Imagiq 890 image processor is capable of handling RGBW sensors, saving 34% power compared to the previous generation variant.
Finally, MediaTek eXtreme Power Saving technology is used on the basis of AI, allowing to use up to 30% less energy in general.It is expected that the first smartphones based on the Dimensity 9200 will appear on sale before the end of this year.
It is known that back in spring, according to AnTuTu benchmark, smartphones based on the Dimensity 9000 chip for the first time were among the top ten most powerful, displacing Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 models.

Experts explained why electronics manufacturers are \"swimming\" in chips, while automakers suffer from chip shortages

Recently, news about a total chip shortage has been replaced by information about a mitigation of the situation.
What's more, some reports suggest that TSMC is asking its employees to take a leave of absence as computer makers have noticeably reduced orders, and orders from smartphone makers have declined even further, a trend that will continue into 2023.
Meanwhile, while some manufacturers are not experiencing any shortage of semiconductors, many companies are still suffering from acute shortages.Image source: МicronAs Forbes reports, while TSMC's leading customers - Apple, AMD, Intel, MediaTek, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm are constantly developing more and more advanced processors, they are currently very \"conservative\" about sales forecasts and, therefore, production orders.
In other words, the leading electronics component vendors do not need many chips yet.This is not surprising, because in this sector demand is largely determined by demand for PCs, which, according to Gartner, in April 2021 rose to record levels, sales of the top six PC manufacturers grew at a double-digit percentage rate, and for some time, even triple-digit sales of Chromebooks.
This trend could not last forever, and figures have already appeared on the sale of certain models of Chromebooks for literally $79 (in the US) - even components for them cost more, but the market is already crowded, and demand is satisfied for almost years to come.
At the same time for the release of new models manufacturers have to free up their warehouses from old and expect high demand for components in this segment in the foreseeable future is not necessary.
For example, in its latest earnings report Micron Tecnology reported that demand in the calendar year 2022 will on average be lower than supply, which will lead to a build-up of large stocks in the warehouses of suppliers.
Scarcity typically initiates massive investments in building new capacity and mastering new process technologies, resulting in the occasional oversupply crisis.
Surplus is observed in many industries-but not in all.
In particular, there is no abundance on the market of chips for cars.
The point is that most of the semiconductors for cars are produced according to the so-called \"mature\" process technologies, and most of the demand is for 90-nm semiconductors.
These were considered the most advanced solution around 2002, 20 years ago.
Nevertheless, they are quite in demand, since many components simply do not need ultra-modern technology, and the process of transition to it is costly and long.Image source: BMWFactories continue to use the old tools for production and, since this segment is not the most profitable, for most manufacturers there was no need to invest in new capacity.
Such semiconductors weren't quite enough already by the beginning of the pandemic, and 2020 recorded about an eight-week period in which most auto factories had to partially or completely suspend operations due to sanitary restrictions, after which they withdrew their semiconductor orders.Meanwhile, explosive growth in other sectors requiring chips has put \"obsolete\" production capacity to full use, and as Forbes reports, when automakers tried to restart orders, delivery times for them catast

TSMC denied rumors: it has not yet chosen a location for the 1-nm fab

The day before the Taiwanese media reported that TSMC, the largest contract manufacturer of semiconductor components in the world, had already decided on the location for its most advanced facility, which will master the 1N technology production in a few years.
As explained by TSMC representatives, no decisions have been made yet.Image source: TSMC According to Focus Taiwan, the original publication of the Commercial Times, citing an anonymous source, mentioned the intention of TSMC to place the new venture in the technology park Xinzhu in northwestern Taiwan.
According to official reports, TSMC is undecided on the site and is still in the process of finding a suitable location on the island.
As soon as the choice is made, the company promises to make the appropriate announcement.Deputy director of the technology park Xinzhu not commented on rumors about the plans of TSMC, but explained that the resident companies can choose the site in the third area of the park for the construction of production facilities, because the first place is all taken, and the second reserved for recreational areas.It is expected that the company will begin mass production of 3-nm products in the current quarter, and next year revenue from their sales will be as follows Mass production of 2-nm products TSMC will begin in 2025.
The company's management did not speak about terms of mastering more advanced lithography at the last quarterly report conference, but in May there was already information about TSMC's readiness to start development of 1.4nm process.

TSMC Suspends Production of Chinese Biren Technology 7nm Accelerators Due to US Sanctions

A day ago, Bloomberg confidently reported that the computing capabilities of the Chinese company's Biren BR100 gas pedals are slightly worse than NVIDIA A100, and therefore the US sanctions will not prevent their further production.
Today, the source sharply changed the rhetoric, saying that TSMC decided to suspend the shipment of these 7nm gas pedals to Chinese customers.Image source: Biren TechnologyIn summer, Biren Technology was not shy about stating that its BR100 gas pedal could challenge the NVIDIA A100.
Features of Chinese product were really impressive: 77 billion transistors, 7nm process technology and spatial layout of 2.5D CoWoS, 64 GB of memory, support for PCI Express 5.0 and CXL interfaces.
However, when speaking about a new wave of anti-Chinese sanctions, Biren representatives preferred to remain anonymous and claimed that their chip does not meet NVIDIA A100 level and therefore would not fall under new export tunnels.
Today Bloomberg reports that TSMC refused to take risks and stopped production of Biren Technology 7nm chip gas pedals.
The Taiwanese contractor still hasn't come to a final conclusion about the belonging of Biren products to the banned category of products, but the shipments will be stopped \"just in case\".
Biren gas pedals are designed to work in machine vision systems, processing of natural speech and its synthesis using artificial intelligence.
Representatives of the Chinese company have not yet commented on the news, according to Bloomberg.

Samsung and TSMC are facing a ban on the sale of their components and electronics in the United States

The US International Trade Commission (USITC) intends to launch an investigation against Samsung and TSMC related to alleged infringement of the companies' patent rights related to chips and mobile devices based on them.
Source image: SamsungThe USITC said the agency is launching an investigation based on a complaint filed in September by New York-based Daedalus Prime LLC.
The complaint alleges a possible violation of Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, adopted to protect U.S.
businesses from foreign competitors.
The complaint is reportedly related to chips manufactured by Samsung using 14nm and newer technologies as well as chips manufactured by TSMC using 16nm and smaller technology.
The investigation will also cover smartphones, tablets and smart watches that use such semiconductors.
In other words, there could be a huge array of cutting-edge electronics involved.
In fact, the lawsuit demands to block the import and sale of all the patent-infringing products mentioned in the complaint.
A separate complaint is reportedly filed by the same company against Qualcomm.According to media reports, Daedalus Prime is a classic patent troll, owning a number of rights to products or processes without any intention of manufacturing or implementing them.
Such companies make money by licensing out technologies they have acquired in various ways or by filing lawsuits.
The case in question is Intel technology, the rights to which Daedalus Prime acquired earlier this year.Apparently, so far, these are only a few of the investigations initiated by the USITC at Daedalus Prime's initiative.
It is assumed that the company intends to make technobusinesses pay for the use of technologies, once patented by Intel - otherwise they will be threatened with a ban on the import of electronics in the United States.
However, while the USITC said that it had not yet made any decisions related to these complaints.
The agency intends to review the materials and evidence and establish the violation of Section 377 in the manner prescribed by law.Meanwhile, a few months ago, Intel announced the availability of another batch of about 5000 of its patents.
These are technologies whose rights have not yet expired, but which are no longer cutting edge.
Nevertheless, they can still bring Intel some income.

AMD CEO to discuss 2nm and 3nm chip production with TSMC

AMD CEO Lisa Su along with a number of other senior company executives are set to visit Taiwan from late September to early November to discuss collaboration with local partners.
AMD will hold talks with TSMC, as well as chip packers and major PC manufacturers.image source: amd.comIn the course of visit, Suh will meet with TSMC CEO CC Wei and, in particular, discuss about production lines N3P (3nm process) and N2 (2nm process), reports DigiTimes, citing its own sources.
The executives will discuss upcoming orders using either existing or forthcoming technologies.AMD owes its success in the processor market in recent years, among other things, to TSMC's ability to produce cutting-edge products in large quantities.
To build on its success, AMD needs timely access to processor design kits (PDKs).
TSMC will launch mass production on N2 nodes in the second half of 2025, so AMD needs to negotiate now to incorporate the technology into 2026 products.Beyond advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology, AMD's success will also depend on packaging solutions-the company will continue to develop CPUs and GPUs from multiple chips (chipsets).
Today AMD already uses several advanced solutions, but in the future the need for different packaging technologies will only grow, and it is necessary to agree in advance on the production capacity and prices.
PCBs and substrates will be discussed with Unimicron Technology, Nan Ya PCB and Kinsus Interconnect Technology.
Finally, AMD management will meet with ASUS and Acer, Taiwan's largest PC makers and long-time partners, as well as chipset developer ASMedia.

Samsung's own 3nm processors won't make their way into Samsung smartphones until 2024

According to some reports, in the generation of Galaxy S23 smartphones that will debut in early 2023, Samsung Electronics will completely abandon the use of internally developed Exynos processors in favor of Qualcomm 4nm components, which will be produced by TSMC.
Only a year later, 3nm Samsung processors will have a chance to fit in smartphones of this brand.Image source: Samsung ElectricSuch as mentioned earlier, the \"first wave\" of 3nm chips produced by Samsung Electronics will be intended for Chinese developers of specialized gas pedals used in the mining of cryptocurrencies.
It was their production in small quantities was established at the pilot line in the Korean Hwasong by the end of last quarter.
For its own needs, as explained by Business Korea, Samsung Electronics will use a second-generation 3-nm process, which will be mastered only next year.
The company will begin producing its own mobile processors using this processor by early 2024, at which point they will be able to fit into Samsung smartphones.
It is possible that production of Samsung's 3-nm processors will be set up at facilities in Pyeongtaek because the production capacity at Hwaseong is limited in terms of scaling capacity.
Rival TSMC will set up mass production of 3-nm chips only by the end of this year, but it is not certain that in its case the start will be as protracted, so it is premature to talk about a clear advantage of Samsung Electronics in terms of timing.

Capital spending in the semiconductor industry could be cut by 16% next year

A report from Micron Technology has let industry analysts know that the company is ready to cut the amount of capital spending in the next fiscal year, which in the memory manufacturer's calendar will start in the first half of September.
The exact amount of the reduction has not yet been named, as there are about two months left until the end of the fiscal year, but experts believe that Micron's example is ready to be followed by other semiconductor manufacturers.Image source: TSMSCA Analysts Citi, for example, expect the main market players to reduce the amount of spending on building new plants and production lines next year.
If this year, according to their estimates, for the corresponding needs will be spent $95 billion, next year this amount can be reduced by 16% to $80 billion.
On such measures can go not only memory manufacturers, but also contract manufacturers of chips, including the largest.Recall that only TSMC is ready to spend this year from $40 to $44 billion for construction of new plants and development of advanced lithography.
Next year, according to preliminary estimates, the company's capital spending will exceed $40 billion, although so far its representatives are not ready to make clarifications on this parameter.
The value of TSMC's core costs is proportional to its share of revenues in the global market of contract services.
The rapid growth of costs, according to the Taiwanese media, will force the company to raise prices for its services by 6% by the beginning of next year.
This unpopular step is pushed not only by capital costs, but also by an increase in electricity tariffs, which took place at the beginning of this month.

Intel is losing ground - it could be overtaken for the first time by TSMC in Q2 revenue

TSMC is the undisputed market leader in contract manufacturing services for semiconductor components, while Intel until recently successfully challenged their status as the largest supplier in terms of revenue, but then ceded the title to Samsung.
In the second quarter, TSMC for the first time could surpass Intel in terms of revenue, based on preliminary calculations.Image source: TSMKak reports The Register with reference to analysts' forecasts, summarized Yahoo Finance, experts expect a consistent increase in revenue TSMC in the second quarter by 43% to $ 18.1 billion.
At the same time earnings Intel should consistently fall by 2% to $ 17.98 billion, which will allow TSMC to bypass the processor giant on this criterion.
This comparison is not the most usual, because most analyst agencies do not try to compare revenues Intel and TSMC, because the companies have worked in different market niches.The situation, however, is changing.
It is known that Intel will not only use TSMC's services more actively to create its own components, but will also develop its contract business.
This will allow Intel to become a competitor of TSMC.
However, in the first quarter Intel's contract activity provided the company only $283 mln of income, while TSMC managed to bring in $16.7 bln, so the amounts differ by an order of magnitude.

TSMC will build four new plants to produce 3nm chips - each costing $10 billion

TSMC will build four new plants to produce 3nm chips.
It was reported by Nikkei Asia.
The total investment will be about $40 billion.
The new factories will strengthen Taiwan's dominance in chip production.
Today, according to various estimates, the island produces up to 90% of advanced semiconductor products.Source: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.Despite the recent completion of four factories, TSMC continues to expand production.
Presumably, the new facilities will be located near the Taiwan city of Tainan.
The cost of each facility will be about $10 billion.The potential volume of production is not specified yet.U.S.
politicians believe that the over-reliance on Taiwan chips creates risks for the global supply chain.
Because of this, U.S.
President Joe Biden signed an order to strengthen the U.S.
industry in the field of semiconductors.
The authorities also turned to Taiwanese companies with a proposal to build plants on the U.S.
territory.
The same TSMC is quite actively conducting construction of its enterprise in Arizona, where it will launch 5-nm products.A few days earlier, TSMC announced five 3-nm technologies for the production of chips.
According to the developers, the novelties will increase the frequency of processors by 10-15% at the same power consumption, and at the same frequency - to reduce energy costs by 20-30%.

TSMC will build plants in the U.S.and Japan, but not yet in Europe

The largest manufacturer of semiconductor products - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) today announced that there are no definite plans to build plants in Europe.
The information came amid repeated attempts by the EU to attract Taiwanese companies to manufacture semiconductors in the European region.Image source: Brian Kostiuk/pixabay.comWith many industries suffering from chip shortages around the world, Taiwan and the EU held talks last week about cooperation, one of the key points of which was the possibility of interaction in the semiconductor market.
In February, the EU introduced the so-called European Chips Act, which lists Taiwan as one of the \"like-minded partners\" with whom Europe would like to cooperate.
TSMC, the world's largest contract chip maker and Asia's most valuable publicly traded company, said a year ago that it was engaged in an initial assessment of expansion into Germany, but there has been no real progress so far.
\"We have relatively fewer customers in Europe, but we're still evaluating and still don't have concrete plans,\" company chairman Mark Liu said at the annual shareholder meeting.It is known that TSMC has allocated $12 billion to build factories in the United States and is building a joint site with Sony Group in Japan -- they should help neutralize a global chip shortage.
It has already noted that the plants in the U.S.
will cost the company a little more expensive than expected.Additionally, TSMC said that this year the company's revenue should grow by about 30%, which contributes to the ongoing chip shortages and rising prices for semiconductors.

NVIDIA has booked TSMC's 3nm capacity by the end of 2024

DigiTimes' Chinese language version of the story, which is not only available to subscription holders, reveals much more details about the specifics of TSMC's cooperation with its customers in the coming years.
It becomes known, for example, that both NVIDIA and Intel are interested in using not only the TSMC's 3nm process, but also the more advanced 2nm process.Advertisement Image source: TSMCNVIDIA will return to using only TSMC services for Hopper and Ada Lovelace graphics solutions, with the latter to be produced not only on 5nm technology, but also on 4nm.
The latter will also be used in Hopper's computing gas pedals, which will not be used in the consumer sector.
According to Taiwanese sources, NVIDIA has already reserved for its needs part of TSMC's production capacity for the production of 3-nm products until the end of 2024.
Intel's interest in using 2-nm technology TSMC looks interesting, especially if you consider that the first of the companies intends to master the 18A technology by 2025, thereby restoring its nominal technological leadership.
However, the processor giant may cooperate with TSMC simply out of a desire to insure itself, or with an eye to possible timing of the implementation of the 2-nm technology by a competitor.

TSMC's April revenues are up by half year-over-year

DigiTimes has taken it upon itself to report Taiwan's contract semiconductor manufacturers in the year-ago April revenue numbers.
The world-leading TSMC for the first month of the current quarter has earned $5.81 billion, which is 0.3% more than in March and 55% more than in April of the previous year.
In just the first four months of the year, TSMC increased revenues by 40.1% over the same period last year.Advertisement Image source: TSMSThe second quarter TSMC expects to end with revenues of $17.6 to $18.2 billion.
Rival company UMC in April revenue did not exceed $769 million, but even for it was significant progress - 2.9% more than in March.
In the first four months of the year, UMC increased revenue by 35.8% compared with the same period last year.
In the second quarter, the company hopes to increase the number of silicon wafers shipped to customers by 4-5% over the first quarter, as well as raise its average selling price by 3-4%.

TSMC will delight customers with another price hike of several percent

While Taiwanese media in the midst of the pandemic mentioned TSMC's intentions to raise prices for its services several times a quarter, Japanese publication Nikkei Asian Review claims that a major price increase took place last August and was measured at 20%.
The next noticeable jump in the cost of the company's services is scheduled for early next year, it will be measured at 5-8%.TSMCSpecifically, the price of TSMC services for the production of components using a wide range of lithographic technologies - from mature to the most modern.
If in the latter case customers will easily enough swallow such an increase, then for the recipients of TSMC products manufactured using mature technologies, the new price increase may be critical.
It should be taken into account that demand for smartphones and PCs this year is at risk of decreasing, and some of TSMC customers simply will not be able to painlessly bear the increased costs on the wallets of end buyers.

AMD, Intel and NVIDIA processors and graphics cards will become more expensive in 2022 - all because of rising manufacturing costs

AMD, Intel and NVIDIA's processors, graphics cards and specialized ASIC chips will rise in price this year, DigiTimes predicts. All of these companies order their chip production from Taiwan's TSMC, which has already increased by 10–20 % the prices of its chip manufacturing services for both older and newer process technologies. The increased prices already apply to new contracts.

For AMD, this means more expensive production of 7nm and 5nm processors and graphics cards. In the case of CPUs, prices will go up for all chips from models on the Zen 2 architecture to future solutions on the Zen 4 architecture. DigiTimes says nothing about Radeon graphics cards on the RDNA 2 architecture, but higher GPU production costs should also be expected since these GPUs are produced on 6- and 7-nm TSMC technologies. According to DigiTimes, NVIDIA is going to produce GPUs for GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards at 5nm TSMC process, abandoning the services of Samsung, which currently produces chips for GeForce RTX 30-series cards. Thus, changes in the pricing policy of the Taiwanese contract manufacturer of chips will affect it. The source points out that NVIDIA has already paid TSMC in advance to reserve 5-nm production lines for 2022. This means that from the very beginning we can expect a higher recommended price for next-generation GeForce RTX graphics cards. Of course, we should also not forget about the ongoing semiconductor shortage, which leads and will continue to lead to significant price increases for graphics gas pedals, especially if NVIDIA decides to release GeForce RTX 40-series cards this year. Intel will be the least affected by the change in TSMC costs among these three companies. However, the American chipmaker itself is going to raise the cost of its products for several reasons, writes DigiTimes. The first reason is that part of new Intel chip production will be outsourced to TSMC. Since the latter has significantly increased the price of future contracts, this may eventually affect the growth of consumer prices of Intel products. In addition, the company continues to develop its own advanced technological processes and is building new factories, which will give Intel more incentives to increase prices to more quickly recoup the cost of additional investment. With all of this in mind, 2022 could be a very bad year for the PC market overall, according to DigiTimes. According to the publication, demand for PCs will decline every quarter throughout the year, but at the same time the prices of critical components & ; processors and graphics cards & ; will continue to rise. The main factors affecting the growth of prices the publication indicates the rising cost of building new factories for the production of semiconductors and the rise in logistics prices amid inflation, as well as the already mentioned above global shortage of chips.