The Apple iPhone 12 launch conference has been postponed. Although the outside world agrees that it will be unveiled on October 13, who can guarantee that the delay will not change again! The reason for the delay of iPhone 12 is largely due to supply chain problems.
According to media reports, the foundry TSMC’s 5nm process began production as early as the first quarter of this year, manufacturing the latest processors for customers such as Apple. The A14 processor released by Apple some time ago was manufactured by TSMC’s 5nm process.
Previous reports have mentioned that Apple requires TSMC to manufacture 80 million A14 processors for iPhone 12 this year, but now the latest reports show that TSMC may not be able to meet Apple’s 80 million order requirements and has not yet completed part can only be postponed to next year.
If the news is true, TSMC’s production load will increase significantly next year. Apple has always been TSMC's largest customer, and the order demands of major customers must be fulfilled at all costs. This is not only related to the production capacity of iPhone 12 and Apple's revenue, but also to TSMC's revenue.
So now a piece of good news has been released. The news points out that TSMC plans to purchase 55 additional EUV lithography machines before the end of 2021 to accelerate the development of EUV-related processes. In fact, half of the EUV lithography machines in use in the world are now in the hands of TSMC.
Currently, the only manufacturer in the world that can produce EUV lithography machines is Dutch ASML. The price of a lithography machine is US$120 million, which is about 800 million yuan. In other words, TSMC plans to invest 44 billion yuan in ASML next year. The purchase of 55 EUV lithography machines is approximately equivalent to TSMC's total revenue in the current two months.
However, in response to the external reports, TSMC officially responded that it is not convenient to disclose the specific authenticity of the news because it involves commercial secrets. Obviously, this response has confirmed the formality of purchasing 55 EUV lithography machines. If there is no response, there may be truth or falsehood.
As mentioned earlier, TSMC purchases EUV lithography machines in large quantities in order to speed up the development of EUV-related processes. Currently, TSMC’s 3nm process is advancing as planned, with risk trial production planned in 2021 and large-scale production in 2022. In addition, 2nm Significant progress has also been made.
TSMC has continued to increase investment in the past few years and has attracted more and more customers. Qualcomm, Intel, Xilinx, NV, AMD and other manufacturers have placed large orders with TSMC. The current production capacity is no longer sufficient. In order to meet market demand, Apple's order failure has highlighted problems, so it is imperative to increase EUV lithography machines.
After all, over the past many years, Apple’s press conferences have always been on time, and iPhone products have never been delayed. In order to ensure that everything goes smoothly for Apple's orders, TSMC has been very active in investing, directly spending huge sums of money to meet the needs of its partners. It seems that Apple should not have to worry about its chip production capacity next year!
