It was officially confirmed that the impact of the US chip cut was revealed, and TSMC also followed the cut by 50%.
A report in Taiwan's "Economy**" quoted an industrial chain report pointing out that TSMC has begun to reduce production, so it has significantly reduced orders, and related ** chain manufacturers have also reduced orders by 50%, suggesting that TSMC will eventually follow up with production cuts due to the reduction of orders by American chip and other manufacturers.
The reason why TSMC was put into production on the 3nm process is because there are no customers and it cannot be mass-produced, Intel and Apple, but Intel delayed the 3nm process for a year, and finally gave up the 3nm process, and TSMC's 3nm process technology is also too high to meet market demand.
Followed by Qualcomm, AMD and Nvidia, they have reduced their orders, after the peak of the iPhonea series of products ended, they began to seize TSMC's production capacity, but Qualcomm because of the failure of Snapdragon 8G2, lost trust in TSMC, AMD and Nvidia saw this, they also reduced their orders, and finally, TSMC's 5nm (including N4) and 7nm production capacity has begun to decline.
Third, TSMC's chip industry has declined, and since the beginning of this year, there has been a large supply of chips, while semiconductor manufacturers such as TSMC have reduced orders in the second half of the year, resulting in a serious shortage of wafer factory capacity.
Taiwan ** said that in September this year, various manufacturers have received instructions from TSMC to reduce the number of orders, suggesting that TSMC has taken it off the shelves because the stock of A16 chips is no longer enough, and now it will cut the orders by another 40%-50%, highlighting the process capacity of TSMC, which is far more than estimated.
TSMC has a decade of excellence in the 16nm FinFET process, has an absolute advantage in the global semiconductor wafer production field, and has a market share of more than 50%, but today, TSMC is facing a severe test.
TSMC's progress on the 3nm process is not very good, which is why they have been delaying production, and until now, they know that the 3nm process does not meet their needs, which is why TSMC will be so difficult.
On the other hand, Samsung, although it is also a 3nm process, is ahead of TSMC, Samsung has adopted the curl gate process on the 3nm process, TSMC is still using the Finfet process, and Samsung's 3nm process is ahead of TSMC, but unfortunately Samsung has not yet received orders, which shows the high cost of the high process, which makes chip manufacturers not interested.
Another thing that has hit TSMC hard is that its largest consumer is chips in the United States. Due to the continued high inventory of chips in the United States in the first half of this year, the order volume was reduced only in the second half of this year. U.S. chips account for 70% of TSMC's revenue, so the production capacity of TSMC's foundries is seriously insufficient, resulting in a serious decline in the production capacity of the foundry.
Taiwan ** quoted industry chain related sources as saying that TSMC's industrial orders in the fourth quarter of last year and the next quarter fell sharply, and the decline was much larger than estimated, and 50% of the orders were reduced, showing a serious shrinkage of advanced technology. In addition, Taiwan** had earlier reported that TSMC's top management asked employees to extend their vacations and cancel paid holidays, and pointed out that in order to reduce expenses, TSMC will not only turn off EUV lithography machines, but also reduce employees' wages.
TSMC looks to be at a tipping point, and in addition to the above-mentioned cost-saving measures, TSMC will also reduce capital spending for some time to come, which will further exacerbate the downturn in the U.S. semiconductor industry and also cause more trouble for the company.