The TSMC Thread

OysterOmelet · December 2, 2019, 10:23pm

UTokyo and TSMC said they plan to collaborate on cutting-edge research in materials, physics, chemistry, and other fields to push the limits of scaling…

I assume this is to get chips under 2 nano?

This is also the first time TSMC is collaborating with an entire university department. They’ve only done so with individual academics in the past.

KHHville · December 3, 2019, 1:53am

any industry-university collaboration is a win-win.
students get real-world experience, professors can write journal papers, and the firm gets R&D at nearly zero cost and gets first chance to use successful results.

Brianjones · December 3, 2019, 2:01am

University of Tokyo is the top ranked uni in Asia. They are well funded but I guess like the chance to stay at cutting edge of semicon production .

izzy · December 3, 2019, 9:49am

to be honest, it is still very expensive to do semi-conductor research, so i am not sure it is “nearly zero cost”. you need clean room facilities, wafers, VERY strong computers to calculate things like electricity flow through single digit nanometer wafers… its no longer something you can do with a legal pad and a pencil

OysterOmelet · December 3, 2019, 9:26pm

Zero skilled labor cost

Whatevah · December 5, 2019, 3:52pm

Largest listed company in Asia. There’s no sign of slowing down either. AMD is going ham on Intel, automotive is growing and IoT will ramp up soon.

OysterOmelet · December 6, 2019, 3:09am

That’s awesome.

Brianjones · December 6, 2019, 3:19am

If 5G takes off they are going to blast off to the next level. Let’s see what happens !

OysterOmelet · December 7, 2019, 3:04am

I wonder if that…

Was spurred by this…

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-22/top-global-fund-says-bye-bye-samsung-hello-taiwan-s-tsmc

OysterOmelet · December 30, 2019, 4:27pm

Samsung will wage a price war to gain market share.

slawa · January 16, 2020, 7:01am

Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C., January 16, 2020 – TSMC (TWSE: 2330, NYSE: TSM) today announced consolidated revenue of NT$317.24 billion, net income of NT$116.04 billion, and diluted earnings per share of NT$4.47 (US$0.73 per ADR unit) for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2019.

Year-over-year, fourth quarter revenue increased 9.5% while net income and diluted EPS both increased 16.1%. Compared to third quarter 2019, fourth quarter results represented an 8.3% increase in revenue and a 14.8% increase in net income. All figures were prepared in accordance with TIFRS on a consolidated basis.

In US dollars, fourth quarter revenue was $10.39 billion, which increased 10.6% year-over-year and increased 10.6% from the previous quarter.

Gross margin for the quarter was 50.2%, operating margin was 39.2%, and net profit margin was 36.6%.

In the fourth quarter, shipments of 7-nanometer accounted for 35% of total wafer revenue and 10-nanometer process technology contributed 1% while 16-nanometer accounted for 20%. Advanced technologies, defined as 16-nanometer and more advanced technologies, accounted for 56% of total wafer revenue.

“Our fourth quarter business benefited from strong demand for high-end smartphones, initial 5G deployment and high performance computing related applications using TSMC’s industry-leading 7-nanometer technology,” said Wendell Huang, VP and Chief Financial Officer of TSMC. “Moving into first quarter 2020, despite mobile product seasonality, we anticipate our business to be supported by the continued ramp of 5G smartphones. Based on our current business outlook, management expects the overall performance for first quarter 2020 to be as follows”:

• Revenue is expected to be between US$10.2 billion and US$10.3 billion;

And, based on the exchange rate assumption of 1 US dollar to 29.9 NT dollars,

• Gross profit margin is expected to be between 48.5% and 50.5%;

• Operating profit margin is expected to be between 37.5% and 39.5%.

The management further expects the 2020 capital budget to be between US$15 billion and US$16 billion.

https://www.tsmc.com/tsmcdotcom/PRListingNewsAction.do?action=detail&language=E&newsid=THGOTHPGTH

OysterOmelet · January 16, 2020, 7:49am

Expected operating margin Uof 39%. Holy cow.

slawa · January 20, 2020, 6:58am

OysterOmelet · January 21, 2020, 3:40pm

TSMC will begin “construction” for the 3nm node in 2020.

Samsung will begin “mass production” of 3nm using a different process in 2021.

Those two probably mean different things, so I don’t know who starts first.

OysterOmelet · March 2, 2020, 3:21am

Uh-oh.

nnnnnnnnnnnn · March 2, 2020, 4:16am

What do you mean Uh-oh?? Did you read the article? It totally debunks the bullshit headline. Is this an attempt at fake news from you?

OysterOmelet · March 2, 2020, 6:39am

Uh-oh for tsmc.

Whatevah · May 15, 2020, 6:18pm

Wondering how this might turn out for TSMC. I’m not sure which process nodes it will affect. It should be fine as long as TSMC can still fabricate nodes as big as 12nm. Regardless, it’s game over for China if US also puts SMIC on the entity list.

OysterOmelet · May 16, 2020, 3:55am

Oh it’s happening…

https://www.anandtech.com/show/15803/tsmc-build-5nm-fab-in-arizona-for-2024

Yeah right. This makes no sense. By then Trump is out of office and they’ll renege.

OysterOmelet · May 25, 2020, 9:27pm

TSMC’s value-added contribution to the iPhone is greater than apple’s.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/opinion/articles/2019-06-12/apple-s-iphones-are-already-made-in-u-s-not-china