As the world’s largest and most advanced wafer foundry, TSMC has become a favorite of major chip companies. It was originally the most expensive foundry. They adjusted prices many times last year. Apple also had to accept TSMC’s price increase. This year’s A16 processor used in the iPhone 14 also has to rely on TSMC’s 4nm process.
TSMC released a revenue report for January. This month’s consolidated revenue was NT$172.176 billion, a month-on-month increase of 10.8% and a year-on-year increase of 35.8%, setting a new record for monthly revenue.
TSMC said that in the Q1 quarter, factors such as HPC high-performance computing-related applications, automotive electronics heating up, and the slowing seasonal impact of mobile phones will drive Q1 performance growth.
TSMC revealed that its current production capacity is fully loaded. In addition, some analysts said that TSMC will continue to increase its foundry prices this year. The production capacity of advanced processes such as 5nm and 4nm is still increasing, and its Q1 quarter performance will also hit a new high.
TSMC’s strength in foundry has even made Apple bow its head. Apple has accepted price increases to ensure production capacity and has contracted TSMC’s 120,000-150,000 4nm production capacity (the average price in 2022 will increase by about 8-10% compared to 2021) , but the increase will be lower than other advanced process customers.
In addition, TSMC’s 3nm process has been delayed, and mass production can only be done in the second half of this year, and the initial production capacity is limited, so Apple’s A16 processor for this year’s iPhone 14 has chosen a more mature 4nm process.
And it is an enhanced N4P process, which is TSMC’s 5nm process The third version of the improved process, the performance is 6% higher than 4nm, 11% higher than 5nm, the transistor density is 6% higher than 5nm, and the energy efficiency is 22% higher.