After the news that "TSMC wants to build a 3nm factory in the United States" was revealed, many netizens could not understand it. It was obvious that TSMC was not interested in the US subsidy of US$52 billion, and after building a factory in the United States, the manufacturing cost of chip would be at least 50%. Why did TSMC insist on going to the United States?
Recently, Strategy Analytics released an important data. Regarding the profitability of the global chip market in Q3 2022, the core reason why TSMC insists on building factories in the United States has been found. Two words summarized, benefits!
data shows that TSMC's OEM's operating profit share hit a new high, reaching 82%, which is also the highest operating profit margin TSMC has created in the past 26 years since 1996. Just looking at the data of "82%" is enough to shock. Compared with chip foundry giants such as GM , SMIC , Intel , etc., the gap is not a little bit, TSMC won!
And behind TSMC's high operating profit margin is inseparable from the support of US companies. According to TSMC's Q3 financial report, the revenue in a single quarter was 145.049 billion yuan, of which 5nm chip shipments reached 28%, 7nm chip shipments reached 26%, and 7nm and more advanced processes accounted for as much as 54%.
You should know that after TSMC lost Huawei , among its top ten important customers, Apple , Nvidia, Qualcomm , etc. occupied 8 seats. Therefore, the contribution rate of to TSMC's revenue is extremely high. In other words, TSMC's dependence on US companies is very high! It is obvious that a large part of the reason why TSMC went to the United States to build factories is to win more American customers, and at the same time, it is necessary to stabilize old customers and prevent them from being stolen by competitors such as Intel.
After all, in the domestic market, except Huawei, other companies cannot provide TSMC with considerable revenue, and in a short period of time, TSMC will not be able to restore its foundry business to Huawei, so "abandoning" the Chinese market and getting close to the European and American markets may be the most favorable choice for TSMC at the moment.
I personally think that the disadvantages outweigh the benefits. In the short term, after TSMC demonstrated its confidence in building factories in the United States and its determination to deepen its efforts in the European and American markets, TSMC has a great opportunity to attract many new European and American customers. If nothing unexpected happens, TSMC's revenue will continue to improve. But in the long run, the risk factor for turning into "MIC" is higher, and a mistake will lead to eternal regret.
Anyone with discerning eyes knows that the US invites TSMC to build a factory in the United States with "bad intentions". TSMC's core technology and professional talents are the "favorite" of the United States. TSMC itself is optional, after all, it is not "biological". Therefore, in the process of building factories and developing in the United States, TSMC must also be wary of various risks such as the "stealing" of core technologies, the "poaching" of professional talents, and the "robbery" of key data.
The worst case is that local manufacturing companies in the United States have obtained all the desired products, such as core technologies, key data, chip talents, etc., so TSMC will have no advantages or value in the United States. TSMC's US customers will also cooperate with local American manufacturing companies for various reasons such as reducing costs and reducing risks, and will completely eliminate and "exit".
In general, TSMC is currently embarking on a "no return" and putting all the chips on US companies, which is too risky. What do you think about this? Welcome to comment and leave a message!
