Per the slide on revenue per platform: 45% of revenue is smartphones (5% growth). Wow, the gift that keeps on giving! HPC is 32% (23% growth), IoT is 8%, (15% growth), Automotive is 5% (3% growth), DCE 6% (-3%), others 4% (-2%).
Per the slide on revenue per technology: 20nm 1%, 16nm is 23%, 10nm 3%, 7nm 21%.
Comments:
I was in Hisinchu this week and noticed a bounce in the step of both TSMC and UMC workers so I expect to hear some good news out of UMC as well. The lunch rooms were buzzing. I mentioned that to a friend and he said it means they are not at their desks working so I guess it could go either way.
Apple gets first pick at 5nm so I doubt very many others will have 5nm system level products on the shelves in 2020 other than Apple in the second half.
It will be interesting to see if TSMC breaks out 6nm or just lumps it in with 7nm like 6nm and 12nm. And I'm wondering if 5nm will keep in trend with 20nm and 10nm as half step nodes that only Apple ship in high volumes. Thoughts?
CC Wei's opening "don't trust Samsung" salvo:
Now let me talk about TSMC's competitiveness. The foundry business model has proven to be the most efficient model in the semiconductor industry. As a pure-play dedicated foundry, we collaborate and work closely together with our customers to unleash their innovation to the market and enable their success. We do not have any internal products, and we do not compete with customers.
Q&A
Asked about 2H 2019:
Dr. C. C. Wei
Actually, I don't want to specifically pinpoint one customer only. All I can say is the second half, the new smartphone launches, especially the premium grade, has been the seasonality phenomena for us, always the second half. And the acceleration of the 5G actually enhance this kind of increase. That's all I can say.
That is Apple and Huawei. If the trade problem with China goes away in the second half, which I believe it will, it will be a big upgrade cycle.
Asked about Samsung 5 and 3:
Dr. Mark Liu
Let me add that, actually, our 5-nanometer is a full-node stride from our 7-nanometer. And our 3-nanometer is another full node stride from our 5-nanometer. This is very different than our competitors' road map. So if you compare their numerical, three is probably closer to the five. Secondly, on the 5-nanometer capacity build -- the second question is 5-nanometer capacity.
Scott Jones was at SEMICON West so hopefully he can chime in here or include it in his next landscape blog. TSMC really is focused manufacturability (yield/cost) so 3nm GAA might be early for them.
Funniest response:
Bruce Lu
It seems to me that the microenvironment seems so dynamic, but we have -- as analyst, we have a lot of difficulties, right? We can't just follow the tweets. So can you help us how to do the -- how do you predict that kind of customer behavior in terms of the production planning moving forward?
Dr. Mark Liu
So don't follow the tweet. As the fabless inventory, I think Lora just reported is coming down.
I wish Morris Chang was there for that one. Tweet? Why do you listen to birds? That is stupid. Hahahahaha
Sebastian Hou
Okay. My second question is can TSMC talk about the possibility of building the fab or acquiring a fab company in the United States? And would this is -- would this be out of the geopolitical concerns? Or any other consideration?
Daniel Nenni: No, that way the US will be sure and protect Taiwan from China.
Lots of 5G discussion which I can summarize here: