Monopolists in Foundry land and their supply chain: worse than a marriage?
While listening to this interesting youtube recording from a 27 May 2027 chat at a Commonwhealth.org evening between Patrick McGee and John Ford on "Apple in China" (
https://appleinchina.com/) and the role of supply chain
I was reminded of some other issues with monopolists in the semi-industry. Years ago, the then-CEO of (litho monopolist) ASML, Peter Wennink, many times jokingly reminded his audience that the relation between ASML and some of its suppliers had gotten so tight that they were "worse than a marriage, one could not divorce". Specifically, his comment referred to the very special relation between ASML and its supplier Zeiss in Germany (see also here:
https://hoeijmakers.net/zeiss-and-asml/ ).
Now that 3D packaging appears to have become the new competitive frontier in leading-edge semi manufacturing I wonder if this is becoming more and more another determining competitive edge for Foundry operation, especially related to AI and HPC, which seems to be the moneymaker the next decade for leading-edge manufacturing?
TSMC so far seems to be well positioned with its suppliers in 3D packaging and I wonder if the key-suppliers here are becoming more and more aligned with the demands of the largest user of 3D-packaging, TSMC foundry.
On the developments in (optical) 3D packaging see also here:
https://tspasemiconductor.substack.com/p/technology-forum-cpo-and-copos-challenge
It seems both TSMC and NVIDIA are strongly "working on building alliances in Europe" these days. Remember that with all the things going on presently in USA (aiming to become an "island" protected by oceans, tariffs and visas?) and Europe (fighting a hot war with Russia and loosing their formerly trusted liberator of WW2) there seems to be a longing for sovereign AI and building trusted allies.
On the expanding strategy of TSMC with its customers and supply eco-system in Europe, see this summary paper from 31 May (yesterday):
https://tspasemiconductor.substack.com/p/tsmcs-strategic-blueprint-from-a
More news around NVIDIA and Europe are expected during the Europe trip of its CEO in June to Paris, Brussels and other cities:
https://youtu.be/c-XAL2oYelI?t=678
https://vivatechnology.com/
Will the economy-of-scale that TSMC is building up with 3D-packaging Fabs (with more and more integration of photons) and all the key-suppliers that it is aligning worldwide around its globally expanding Foundry Fabs, has the 3D-supply chain become another key area of the monopolist advantage?
