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China definitely has TSM in its sights as a target. I feel the only way TSM can compete is to coninue to follow Morris Chang's stated plan of taking learning from the latest nodes backwards and applying much of the knowledge to older nodes. Being able to make larger nodes better, faster and more efficiently will be a key part of staying on top and one must continuously master the leading edge to have the very best and most efficient fabrication processes. Mems, sensors and nanotechnology will make even very large nodes a technological tour de force. Advanced packaging is also key to staying on top. Chip manufacturing is advancing in technology at all nodes and processes and it will always be a race to stay ahead and so far TSM is winning. Advanced business practices and strategies will be as important as the technological ones. TSM has to show their value as an allie to other countries ambitions and not a threat. Morris Chang is one of the great strategists of our time and I'm sure he has built a very deep bench in many areas. With automation of everything from design to manufacturing to distribution being highly automated, labor costs are not the factor. Pooling talent from around the world and building alliances based on trust are key and something TSM has mastered, when Samsung largely failed with Apple. This same strategy will play out in working with China. It is better to work with TSM than fight them. I feel China should look to TSM as a key partner and asset to advance their specialties and strengths rather than a threat or even competition. China will find it would be better to work with TSM to advance themselves as their competition has, than start from scratch with less than state of the art, bleeding edge technology. China must learn to work with the very best to bring out the best in itself. A country can be gauged by the company it keeps, North Korea is a lead weight and Taiwan is a rising star. China can look at the past or choose the future.
TSMC is well aware of this of course. Unfortunately the foundry landscape has changed now that TSMC is fully backed by Apple, Broadcom, and NVIDIA. New processes are coming out at a dizzying speed which is making it very difficult for the ecosystem to catch up and support all processes from all foundries. And if Broadcom does acquire Qualcomm they will be back at TSMC for sure so good luck to Samsung. TSMC has never been stronger....
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company:
$3.13B in consolidated revenue for October
up 6.7% on the prior month and 3.8% on the year
YTD revenue now totals $26.3B, up 2.3% on the year
QCT has never left TSM, and has continued to do a lot of fabrication there. It only shifted certain products to Samsung for awhile. QTL and Samsung are in conflict, and that has strained QCT's relationship with Samsung. Look for QCT to take their 7nm business back to Morris.
QCT has never left TSM, and has continued to do a lot of fabrication there. It only shifted certain products to Samsung for awhile. QTL and Samsung are in conflict, and that has strained QCT's relationship with Samsung. Look for QCT to take their 7nm business back to Morris.
QCOM has already taped out 7nm products to TSMC and now they are back to Samsung. QCOM has always mutli-sourced foundry business so this is nothing new. The big difference is that QCOM is no longer part of the TSMC inner circle as Apple, Nvidia, Xilinx, and Broadcom are. TSMC knows full well that anything they share with QCOM will ultimately end up at Samsung and that is the new reality of semiconductor manufacturing.
Apple made it very clear that they cannot support multiple foundries with the volumes and pace they are on with new processes. Broadcom and Nvidia are in the same position. Great news for TSMC, not so great news for the other foundries and leading edge companies in the outer circle, my opinion.
