In recent times, TSMC, as the world's leading chip foundry, can be said to be bad news. This not only surprises us, how could the decline of a generation of giants be so fast? First, TSMC's 3-nanometer process mass production time was delayed again and again. According to the past, TSMC's most advanced process was in short supply at the first time, but now it has to be postponed, and now it has been postponed for another three months. However, according to media disclosures, TSMC's original plan to have a monthly capacity of 44,000 was directly reduced to 10,000 ft. Nearly 80% of its production capacity was cut.
Later, TSMC admitted that its 7-nanometer capacity utilization rate will decline, which is reported to drop by up to 20%. Then, it has been revealed that its mature process and 5-nanometer process have been cut by customers. To be precise, TSMC's top ten customers have reduced orders. According to the latest news, even Apple has cut orders for A16 and A15 chips. TSMC also stated that it will shut down 4 lithography machines , suspend the construction of a 7-nanometer factory, reduce investment by up to US$8 billion, and now encourage employees to take leave. There is no doubt that TSMC has suspended production of some production lines.
can be seen that it seems not too much to describe TSMC as "sadness is everywhere". However, now, something more serious than the suspension of production has occurred. According to media reports, TSMC's competitors, and may be its biggest competitor, , Intel , have received orders from 7 major customers, of which 5 are TSMC's top ten customers. In other words, the orders of "half" of TSMC's "large" were "snatched away" by its rival Intel.
You should know that if it is only because of the decrease in customer demand, the order cuts on TSMC and thus the production suspension is caused, then it is understandable. However, now, TSMC's major customers are cutting orders at TSMC while placing orders at Intel while placing orders at Intel. There is no doubt that those orders that originally belonged to TSMC were actually diverted, which means that many orders will bid farewell to TSMC directly. It has to be said that the times are about to change.
This is because Intel has received orders from 7 major customers, in addition to TSMC's top ten customers, there are also two customers who are also the world's top 10 semiconductor giants. Obviously, Intel is coming in full force this time. Not only that, Intel has already stated that its 1.8A process has already flown in its factory. Previously, the 1.8A process was considered to be a 1.8nm process, but now, this process may be targeted by TSMC's 3nm, which should be targeted by Intel4 and 7nm, and Intel3 is a slightly upgraded version, so the target will be 6nm, and Intel2 will be targeted by 5nm, and finally to 1.8A, it should be benchmarked with 3nm.
But no matter how many nanometers 1.8A is, it is likely to be 3 nanometers or less. From this point of view, TSMC has lost its leading advantage in advanced processes, that is, Intel can also manufacture chips with the most advanced processes, and has obtained customer chip orders. The next step is mass production. In fact, AMD, which was also the top ten in the world, expressed its belief in Intel's capabilities. You must know that on X86 chips, AMD is Intel's biggest competitor.
However, for TSMC, this is still not all the pressure. There is another link, that is, TSMC's US factory. Data provided by Intel shows that the cost of the US factory is 40% higher than that of Asia. Therefore, if the factory wants to ensure a certain profit of and , it basically depends on subsidies. However, in the previous tens of billions of dollars of subsidy distribution, Intel received about 4 times the amount of TSMC, so TSMC's US factories are basically not profitable.
More importantly, according to media reports, the customers of TSMC's US factory are mainly Apple. You should know that Apple is TSMC's largest customer and the main source of profit. If all Apple's chips are manufactured in the US factory in the future, TSMC's profit will drop significantly. Therefore, overall, we say that the times are about to change. If you think it is reasonable, thank you for giving me a thumbs up and reading.
