As you know from our previous news, TSMC is the largest contract chip manufacturer in the world. As you also know many tech giants like Apple, Qualcomm or MediaTek do not have their own chip production capacity, so they turn to TSMC or Samsung for their chip designs. For example, last year's Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chip was produced by TSMC using a 7nm process, and this year's Snapdragon 888 is produced by Samsung's Samsung Foundry division using a 5nm process. Now, Counterpoint Research has published its prediction for the semiconductor market for this year. According to her, sales will increase by 12% to 92 billion dollars (roughly 1,98 trillion CZK).
Counterpoint Research also expects TSMC and Samsung Foundry to grow 13-16% and respectively this year. 20%, and that the first mentioned 5nm process will be the largest customer Apple, which will use 53% of its capacity. Specifically, the A14, A15 Bionic and M1 chips will be produced on these lines. According to the company's estimate, the second largest customer of the Taiwanese semiconductor giant will be Qualcomm, which should use 5 percent of its 24nm production. 5nm production is expected to account for 5% of 12-inch silicon wafers this year, up four percentage points from last year.
As for the 7nm process, TSMC's biggest customer this year should be the processor giant AMD, which is said to use 27 percent of its capacity. The second in the order should be the giant in the field of graphics cards Nvidia with 21 percent. Counterpoint Research estimates that 7nm production will account for 11% of 12-inch wafers this year.
Both TSMC and Samsung produce a variety of different chips, including those made using EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) lithography. It uses ultraviolet rays of light to etch extremely thin patterns into wafers to help engineers create circuits. This method has helped foundries transition to the current 5nm as well as next year's planned 3nm process.
You could be interested in
