As the United States is imposing restrictions on the acquisition of cutting-edge chips by some Chinese companies, TSMC, as the world's largest chip foundry, is also drawing the line.
Since the suspension of Huawei’s supply in September last year, TSMC has embarked on a path of no return to demarcation. On April 8 this year, the United States announced that it would stop supplying Tianjin Feiteng and other seven Chinese companies that manufacture and maintain supercomputers. As a result, TSMC quickly jumped out and stated that it is only responsible for the production of chips. Without knowing it, he emphasized that he would stop taking orders in accordance with the wishes of the United States.
Of course, TSMC’s statement has always been required by the United States, and I have to do it, but it may not be the case. One thing can prove that TSMC is taking the initiative to draw the line.
As we all know, the global chip is out of stock now, and major chip factories are making additional investments and expanding production. TSMC also raised its capital expenditure this year to 30 billion U.S. dollars, which is 60% more than last year's 18 billion U.S. dollars.
However, only TSMC’s plant in Nanjing is an exception. TSMC has already stated that there is currently no specific plan for further expansion of the Nanjing plant. You should know that the United States does not allow extreme ultraviolet (EUV) processes to land in China, but there are no restrictions on the 12 and 16-nanometer deep ultraviolet (DUV) processes of the Nanjing plant. Therefore, in the face of a large shortage of chips, the TSMC Nanjing plant has It is proactive and spontaneous not to invest in the expansion of production.
In fact, TSMC is not the only non-mainland company with chip factories in mainland China. In contrast, Samsung has already announced that it will invest US$8 billion in its memory factory in Xi’an to increase production capacity. In addition to owning a factory in Chongqing, SK Hynix also spent US$9 billion last year to acquire Intel's factory in Dalian.
The reason why Korean manufacturers invest heavily in China Semiconductor is that,China is the world's most demanded market for semiconductors, accounting for 23% of the world's total. Moreover, Chinese technology companies are manufacturing more and more state-of-the-art consumer electronic products, which will definitely provide a huge source of growth for semiconductor manufacturers.
And TSMC’s choice to stop here is actually not in line with the development trend of the Chinese market. This is the obvious feature that TSMC is drawing the boundaries.
Why are you so decisive? Once, TSMC’s business strategy was to become a "chip factory for all parties," but now it has changed.
According to TSMC’s financial report, Huawei used to be TSMC’s second largest customer. In 2019, it contributed 15% of its revenue. By September 2020, it was cut off and it also contributed 13%. Revenue. But after the loss of Huawei, a major customer, in September, will TSMC be seriously injured? In fact, they did not. Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek, etc. quickly filled up their positions and took over the production capacity previously owned by Huawei to make up for the lost orders from TSMC.
In 2020, mainland customers, including Huawei, provided TSMC 17.45% of revenue. It can be predicted that once Huawei is removed, basically only 2% to 5% will remain. Truth be told, it doesn't matter much.
In addition to MediaTek, six of TSMC’s top seven customers are American companies. TSMC, which is known as "foundries for all parties," has in fact become the foundries of American companies.
On April 17, TSMC announced that it had handed in its brilliant transcript last year. Its annual revenue increased by 25.2% and its net profit increased by 50% annually. This shows that American companies have given too much. That's why I can conclude that TSMC is so decisive about drawing the line.
What do you think of TSMC, which is so decisive to draw the line?
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