TSMC has firmly occupied the world's largest chip foundry for decades, providing chip foundry services to Apple, Qualcomm, AMD, Nvidia and other companies. However, with the slowdown of Moore's Law and the series of layout actions of competitors Samsung and Intel have put TSMC in more variables.
Is TSMC's "era" coming to an end? Does TSMC have any backup plan?
Samsung, Intel took action one after another, TSMC increased in variables
TSMC announced its revenue for the second quarter of this year, with consolidated revenue of RMB 120.45 billion, a year-on-year increase of 43.5%. The outside world actually expected such revenue data, after all, TSMC has broken through revenue records for more than ten consecutive years. Revenue in 2022 is expected to hit a new high.
But TSMC cannot be happy too early because a series of signs indicate that TSMC's competitors are already catching up. Moreover, with the slowdown of Moore's Law, the speed of breakthrough in process processes will also decrease, so that other manufacturers will have the opportunity to catch up. The best verification of
is that Samsung took the lead in TSMC to mass-produce 3nm, and even Samsung's first batch of 3nm chips have held a shipping ceremony on July 25, proving that Samsung's 3nm process is orderly promoting commercial layout. However, TSMC's 3nm still has not determined the mass production time.
Not only that, Samsung also has a larger layout action. According to a plan rumored by Samsung, it will invest $200 billion in Texas, the United States, to build 11 chip factories in the next two decades. Once all these investment projects of Samsung are implemented, you can imagine how big the capacity advantage Samsung can grasp.
Not only Samsung, Intel is also taking action. Anyone who is concerned about Intel knows that Intel has restarted its chip foundry business department, and Samsung has entered the same chip foundry service field as TSMC.
In this case, Intel first planned to invest $20 billion to build a large chip factory in Ohio, and then attracted partners such as Qualcomm and Nvidia to provide foundry services to these companies in the future.
However, what TSMC did not expect was that Intel attracted another big customer, which was MediaTek.
Intel and MediaTek officially announced their cooperation on July 25, and the two parties established a strategic partnership. Intel will use the 16nm process technology to provide OEM services for MediaTek.
, although it is only 16nm, the point is that MediaTek's cooperation with Intel has sent a strong signal, that is, it is to prove that MediaTek can cooperate with foundries other than TSMC.
You should know that MediaTek surpasses Qualcomm and becomes the world's number one system-level chip manufacturer, and has won the first place in the smartphone SOC shipment rankings many times. With MediaTek's cooperation, Intel has added another help.
With Intel mastering the benchmark against TSMC and Samsung's high-end process technology, who can guarantee that MediaTek will not hand over more orders to Intel. Not to mention American companies, Qualcomm has clearly adopted Intel's 20A process in the future, and the United States has formulated a chip subsidy plan to provide Intel with a large amount of subsidies, allowing the American chip manufacturer to soar.
Overall, Samsung and Intel have taken action one after another. The former has led TSMC to mass production and shipped 3nm chips, the latter has received cooperative support from MediaTek, and the United States has supported Intel, and TSMC has increased in variables.
Does TSMC have any backup plan?
If this trend continues to develop, is the "era" of TSMC coming to an end? At least for the moment, TSMC cannot continue to remain calm as before. US rules have caused TSMC to lose its second largest customer.
The United States has let TSMC build a factory in the United States, and it has no intention of providing subsidies. While providing subsidies, it also requires companies not to participate in investment in high-end chip semiconductors in other markets within ten years. These situations are not something TSMC is willing to see, but apart from letting things go, TSMC does not seem to have more choices.
But no one can tell what will happen in the future. What needs to be dealt with now is the action plans of Samsung and Intel. Does TSMC have any moves in this regard?
Perhaps the chip production capacity, the number of EUV lithography machines and the cooperation of customers such as Apple can bring considerable help to TSMC.
Although Intel is accelerating its pace of progress, TSMC has decades of technological accumulation and industry accumulation. TSMC has the world's leading chip production capacity and more than half of the world's EUV lithography machines, which is something that Samsung and Intel cannot surpass in a short period of time.
In addition, Apple has contributed huge revenue to TSMC. In the future, Apple will also find TSMC to manufacture 3nm chips. Even if Samsung takes the lead in achieving mass production of 3nm, TSMC can make up for the shortcomings of time lag from more customers.
As for Intel, Intel currently needs to find TSMC to produce, which shows that TSMC has mastered some technologies that Intel cannot overcome. And TSMC said that he knows how to compete with Intel.
Looking at the industrial strength of the three giants, TSMC, Samsung and Intel, there is a reason why TSMC has maintained the world's number one for a long time. But in the face of Samsung and Intel's pursuit, TSMC cannot turn a blind eye.
written at the end
The chip manufacturing industry is becoming more and more lively. The giants are stepping up the construction of chip factories, rushing to buy ASML's EUV lithography machine, and exploring more advanced process technologies. TSMC has to face everything. After all, Samsung is actually leading TSMC's mass production by 3nm. Only time can answer the answer to what kind of industrial effects can TSMC's back-up bring.
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