html On August 22, according to the Electronic Times, industry insiders said that the production capacity of TSMC’s mature process technology production lines such as 45nm and 28nm has been loosened in the second half of this year. This has caused many chip design manufacturers to begin trying to negotiate with them to adjust the price increase. . However, TSMC has denied the possibility of a reduction, which means that most smart products next year will have varying degrees of price increases.
(Picture from: Tesla official website)
Currently, TSMC occupies nearly 60% of the global wafer foundry market. It can not only be called "half of the country", but it can also be said to control the lifeblood of semiconductor . It is not an exaggeration to say that the news of TSMC’s foundry fee increase this year has made countless cooperative manufacturers feel scared. Due to the poor performance of the consumer electronics market this year, smartphones, PCs and smart wearable devices have begun to cut orders. This also means that manufacturers no longer need to purchase a large number of chips. As expected, TSMC has confirmed a rise of 6 at the beginning of the year. % of the OEM fee, the cooperative manufacturers can only silently accept it. In the latest news, some of TSMC's mature processes, especially the 45nm, 28nm and other processes required for smart car chips, have experienced capacity adjustments. Even so, TSMC has refused to replenish production through preferential policies.
(Picture from: pexels)
TSMC is still so confident this year, perhaps thanks to the good rival Samsung . Samsung, which originally had a back-and-forth with TSMC in the field of smartphones, was exposed at the beginning of the year to conceal rumors that it had lost orders for and Qualcomm flagship chips due to poor yield rates. This was also one of the reasons for its serious decline in reputation. Of course, it is impossible to verify whether Samsung concealed the yield rate from Qualcomm, but Qualcomm did urgently change the foundry manufacturer of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 chip from Samsung to TSMC, which seems to hint at the truth. In the field of smart trams, Samsung has had no advantage from the beginning. According to statistics, there are currently about 14 popular and advanced tram chips, 11 of which are manufactured by TSMC, and only a few companies cooperate with Samsung. .
(Picture from: Weibo "Qualcomm Developer Community")
However, from a practical point of view, TSMC's price increase is not a good choice for consumers, manufacturers or itself. At present, almost all the core chips of smart trams use mature process technology. The biggest problem with this type of technology is thin profits. Even TSMC, which takes most of the orders for this type of chips, only accounts for 3% of the revenue in the financial report. It can be said to be thankless. TSMC’s solution is to choose to make progress together with car companies and gradually adopt more advanced processes such as 22nm and 14nm. This is good news for both profit margins and the development of smart electric vehicles, but price increases will only force car companies not to If it dares to act rashly, TSMC itself will be trapped in meager profits, and consumers will suffer from price increases.
(cover image from: pexels)
