TSMC manufactures a large number of chips for US customers, and more than half of its production capacity is given to the United States. Of course, TSMC has also earned more than 60% of its revenue share from the US market, which can be said to have made a lot of money. Due to its technological advantages, TSMC has always had a high voice in cooperation with US companies.
But this time TSMC's request for price increase was rejected by Apple , and Nvidia also intends to follow up. Is TSMC "the trend is over"? How does TSMC respond to the US’s reliance on TSMC?
US customers oppose TSMC's price increase
When the United States loses its chip manufacturing advantages, TSMC has become an important source for the United States to acquire high-end chips. High-end chips of American giants such as Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm , AMD are all found by TSMC. Even chip manufacturers like Intel need to find TSMC to cooperate.
It can be seen that TSMC has a very high position in the US market, which has made the United States highly dependent on it. Because of this, TSMC has raised prices many times in the context of chip shortage, and American corporate customers have not said anything.
Even if you bear the additional cost, you can only bear it silently in order to obtain TSMC's production capacity support.
is just not having a good time for American companies. Nvidia's net profit fell by more than 70% in the second quarter of this year, and Intel also set its worst fiscal quarter performance in history. On the contrary, TSMC's revenue not only did not decline, but instead soared. TSMC's revenue in the second quarter of this year reached US$18.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 36.34%.
On the one hand, American companies are suffering, and on the other hand, TSMC is making a fortune every day, and TSMC is also planning to launch a new price increase plan. In 2023, the price increase will range from 6% to 9%.
Although the customer and TSMC are working hard to negotiate, they have not achieved much effect. After all, TSMC's technology and capacity advantages are right in front of us. Apart from choosing to accept, there are not too many choices.
The fig leaf of TSMC's continuous price increase was ruthlessly torn apart. Although TSMC is also bearing the impact of the price increase in the supply chain, if semiconductor continues to rise while the production capacity of semiconductor slows down, it will inevitably cause controversy among customers.
. According to the news, Apple has rejected TSMC's price increase requirements in 2023. You should know that all Apple's high-end chips are exclusively produced by TSMC. If TSMC rejects TSMC's price increase requirements, if TSMC loses its production capacity support, wouldn't Apple be worth the loss?
However, according to the actual situation, Apple has more room for bargaining. Since TSMC lost its Huawei order, most of the 5nm and 4nm orders were obtained from Apple . Therefore, Apple contributed more than 25% of TSMC's revenue share, and the lower the chip process, the fewer customers.
Apple confirmed that it will become a TSMC 3nm customer, and will place a large chip order for the 3nm process in 2023. In this way, Apple will become an important guarantee for TSMC to increase its revenue by 3nm.
If TSMC actively reduces Apple's production capacity due to Apple's refusal to raise prices, it is difficult to guarantee that Apple will not find a way to switch to , Samsung , and Intel will produce chips in the future. Not only Apple, according to market news on September 28, Nvidia is also interested in following Apple's pace and rejecting TSMC's price increase.
TSMC is "despaired"?
It is worth mentioning that Nvidia is no longer satisfied with the price of TSMC chip foundry, and the cost of finding TSMC's 4090 series graphics cards produced by TSMC has increased by 15%, causing huge controversy in the consumer market.
If Nvidia accepts TSMC's price increase requirements next year, Nvidia will either bear the cost itself or raise the price in the consumer market. No matter which one it is, it is not what Nvidia wants to see.
As US customers oppose price increases, is TSMC's general trend gone? If this trend continues, US companies are likely to find OEM alternatives and find ways to reduce their dependence on TSMC. Or it is possible that many American companies will unite to jointly oppose TSMC's price increase.
Maybe some people say that TSMC has technology and production capacity, isn’t it the initiative in bargaining? Having said that, don't forget that the United States has been supporting and cultivating Intel both openly and secretly. Once Intel has the strength to replace TSMC, TSMC's position in the US market will plummet. By then, can TSMC still take the initiative?
The United States is reducing its dependence on TSMC, and TSMC's response method is actually very simple, that is, to maintain a certain distance from the United States and avoid excessive exchanges in non-essential order cooperation. At the same time, ensure technological advantages, adhere to chip globalization, and prevent the United States from concentrating resources in the chip industry chain. If this can be done, perhaps TSMC can still grasp its future destiny by itself.
In fact, there is another reason why US companies have the confidence to refuse TSMC's price increase. That is, the demand for high-end chips has declined, and many American companies are cleaning up inventory. How can they accept TSMC's price increase?
This also proves that Chinese academician Wu Hanming is right. Local controllable mature chips are more meaningful than imported 7nm. Wu Hanming also emphasized that chip production capacity lags behind demand and must continue to expand production.
summary
Currently, The mature chips of SMIC layout are ushering in a rising demand, and meeting the demand for mature chips is more important than importing high-end chips. Although TSMC has the advantages of high-end chip technology, the refusal of US companies to raise prices and reduce dependence will make TSMC "good". To avoid things you don't want to see happen, TSMC should make changes.
What do you think about this? Welcome to leave a message below to share.
