Foreign media pointed out that TSMC is facing a grim situation!
On the one hand, TSMC can stand out among foundries by catching up with the pulse of the times and relying on its own strength to continue to advance in the competition; On the other hand, since it is a pure foundry industry, it quickly attracted a large number of customers.
However, some time ago, due to the direct interference of the United States in the global semiconductor industry, TSMC's freedom was restricted, and Huawei became its largest consumer. Five months after the return of the Kirin, TSMC is helpless!
Huawei originally did chip design and foundry at TSMC, and later followed Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek and other companies. The reason why TSMC was selected as TSMC is because of its advantages in chip production.
TSMC has many customers, but Huawei is very special, in the past two years, Huawei's handheld sales have been rising, and it is already TSMC's second largest customer after Apple, with TSMC's revenue accounting for 25% of the total revenue.
If there are no other surprises, Huawei's share of TSMC's revenue will also rise rapidly, and it may even catch up with Apple.
However, the United States' regulations on chips have been revised, even if TSMC is reluctant, there is no way to OEM for Huawei, and TSMC has lost its two major customers, with an annual loss of more than 30 billion yuan.
But Liu Deyin, chairman of TSMC at the time, didn't care about this, but felt that he was quite good in this game of chess. Liu Deyin said that Huawei's short position will soon be filled, and then a large number of American companies will fill the gap.
Liu Deyin believes that Huawei will use Qualcomm's chips at that time, and TSMC can still make profits.
As far as Liu Deyin knows, even the founder Zhang Zhongmou is at least five years behind TSMC in chip production in the mainland, so in a short period of time, the mainland will not be able to catch up with the advanced process.
In the beginning, Huawei did use Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors as they had hoped. However, they never expected that it only took Huawei more than three years to complete the self-developed Kirin chip and position it in the domestic industrial field.
Since then, Huawei has ramped up the range and capabilities of its Kirin chips, and has largely moved away from Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors.
Huawei's Kirin processors continue to sell**, further increasing Kirin's market share. Qualcomm also said that in the next period of time, it will not be able to get corresponding benefits from Huawei, which will inevitably have an impact on TSMC.
In addition, Huawei's big sales will further compress the market of other mobile phone manufacturers, including domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple, which has caused Apple's own chip orders and Qualcomm's chip orders to decline.
TSMC's biggest customers are Apple, Qualcomm, and other consumers have hit TSMC with increasing losses.
Liu Deyin not only did not provide chips to Huawei, but also established an advanced chip factory in the United States to expand the market share in the United States, but the large chip subsidies promised to him by the United States ** not only did not get any return, but also suffered heavy losses.
It has only been 5 months since the comeback of Huawei's Kirin chip, and TSMC suddenly announced that Liu Deyin would step down and be replaced by the elderly Wei Zhejia, which was a big surprise.
Obviously, Liu Deyin's performance in the past few years made TSMC very unhappy, especially because he ignored the mainland market and went to the United States to open a factory.
The chairman of the Wei Zhe family is a different matter, he attaches great importance to the mainland market and customers, and he led a delegation to Shanghai to hold a technical briefing and visit the mainland in person. This approach may lay a solid foundation for TSMC's long-term development.
TSMC's replacement of Liu Deyin is obviously to postpone the U.S. factory, so as to minimize TSMC's losses.
TSMC's production base in the mainland is also expanding at an accelerated pace. In particular, Zhang Zhongmou also clearly expressed his approval of the US restrictions on Chinese chips. This move is obviously to slow down the mainland's chip research and development progress and continue China's dependence on TSMC.
In this regard, some foreign countries bluntly said that TSMC is really anxious, so it wants to use this method to change the current stalemate. However, it was too late, and the research and development of Kirin chips represents a breakthrough in the domestic chip industry.
Huawei HiSilicon announced it some time ago"Vientiane Xinsheng"There is no doubt that Huawei will have a bigger move in 2024. It is reported that Huawei will release more chips one after another, and more products will be developed after that.
The United States can't stop the development of China's chips, let alone TSMC? Only by taking the initiative to integrate can we develop better!