On the 15th of last month, TSMC finally officially announced that it will plan to set up a 5-nanometer advanced wafer factory in Arizona, USA. It is expected to start construction next year and start mass production in 2024, with a monthly production capacity of 20,000 wafers. The factory will be about US$12 billion. TSMC is undoubtedly in a dilemma in the competition between China and the United States. TSMC is the world's largest chip manufacturer and has the world's most advanced chip production technology. TSMC 's market value even exceeds that of the US chip giant Intel . Now TSMC market value is US$268.8 billion, and Intel market value is US$267.2 billion. TSMC was the first in the world to successfully mass-produce 7nm process chips. It is also the world's first professional integrated circuit manufacturer to mass-produce 5G mobile network chips, and almost takes over 90% of the world's 5G chip orders. Nearly 50% of TSMC's revenue comes from smartphone chips, with high-efficiency computing accounting for 30%, Internet of Things accounting for 9%, automotive electronics accounting for 4%, and consumer electronics 5%. As soon as the announcement of
was released, the market believed that this move would have an impact on Taiwan's semiconductor industry. Advanced process technology may flow out, whether local talents in the United States can meet the needs of the production line, and even related supply chains have become doubts from the outside world. Today (9th) , TSMC Chairman Liu Deyin, at the shareholders' meeting, explained the plan to set up factories in the United States one by one. The location of
is determined! Only the details of the subsidy policy
"Subsidies are indeed an important factor affecting the decision of TSMC ," said Liu Deyin. Currently, the matter of setting up a factory in the United States is only a shortcut. Even where you want to be in Arizona is planned. It depends on whether the US federal and state governments will provide favorable subsidy policy assistance to TSMC , which is going abroad to set up factories. He stressed that if the subsidy policy can ensure that the gap in production and other related costs narrows, it means that the gross profit margin is not far from the current company as a whole, and it will definitely make money for TSMC .
R&D technology remains in Taiwan
The outside world is worried about the outflow of technology. Liu Deyin emphasized that the technology development of advanced processes is definitely "remaining in Taiwan!" But looking at the current situation of only more than 200 doctoral graduates in China every year, he is not only worried about whether the talent gap can be filled under the driving force of trends such as 5G and AI.
Therefore, the main motivation for TSMC to set up a factory in the United States is to cooperate with these world-class top talents. Liu Deyin sets his sights on 10 years later. He hopes to continue to master the technology and development needed by the semiconductor industry in the next 10 years through such a layout. He said that such a plan is in line with the interests of the company as a whole.
In addition, the revenue of the US market accounts for about 60% of TSMC . With the premise of having a large number of American customers, setting up factories in the United States can be closer to local customers, helping them obtain better services for commercial purposes and achieve the purpose of customer trust. Liu Deyin revealed that the US customers currently in negotiations are commercial customers and do not directly do business with the military. Most of them are commercial products. Only in this way can the wafer fab be bigger.
Natural conditions and industrial chain have been established in Arizona. The main reason is
As for why it is located in Arizona? Liu Deyin said that the local area is not only a place that young people in the East and West Coasts yearn for in the United States, but can be found from the fact that every household has a swimming pool. The local area has abundant water resources; in addition, the electricity price is cheap and 100% green electricity, which is also a favorable natural condition for TSMC , which has many customers requiring carbon footprint. Not only that, Arizona can be said to be a settlement of the semiconductor industry, including Intel , Aike Technology, etc., all set up factories here. The complete supply chain of related products is also the reason why TSMC is attracted here.
In addition to setting up factories in the United States, TSMC also leads relevant downstream manufacturers in the supply chain, including packaging and testing, equipment, materials, etc., to form an attack on the United States.Liu Deyin said that when communicating with downstream manufacturers, he found that they were actually very "adventurous". He believed that even if there were already relevant supply chains in the local area, they believed that their strength could not only become the supply chain of TSMC , but also enter the local market and work with TSMC to create a win-win situation.
In this regard, Liu Peizhen, an analyst at the Taiwan Economic Academy, said that such a group battle can not only create a cluster effect, but also extend the competitive advantage of Taiwan’s semiconductor to the United States. It not only needs to consolidate the US market, but also strive for more orders from US customers.
not only has an impact on Huawei , but also needs to pay attention to the impact of AI chip companies.
TSMC Chairman Liu Deyin said: Building a factory in the United States is a temporary measure. Although it is not yet concluded, if the plan is formed, the core technology will remain in Taiwan.
Although the United States currently mainly imposes sanctions on Huawei, it is undeniable that starting from the wafer fabs and talking about TSMC to the US to build a factory will also affect TSMC other Chinese customers, such as AI chip company Cambrian .
We all know that in 2018, the terminal AI chip 1M of Cambrian adopted the TSMC 7nm process. Although Huawei, the largest customer of Cambrian , has made its own AI chips and has not purchased series chips such as Cambrian , resulting in a significant reduction in revenue of Cambrian , but it is currently at a critical node for the listing of Cambrian . If there are major problems in the supply chain, it will have an unpredictable negative impact on the listing, customers and corporate development of Cambrian .
From this point of view, in addition to Cambrian , Horizon, SenseTime, Naineng, Yunzhisheng and other artificial intelligence chip companies may also be affected if they adopt higher nanoprocessing (7-3nm). And these AI chip companies, , Alibaba , Huawei and other giants have participated in the investment.
So what do you think? Welcome to express your opinions and opinions.
