Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, expects to ship 1.5 million 28-nanometer (nm) wafers by the end of this year, riding on strong demand for mobile devices, a company executive said yesterday.
TSMC has cornered more than 90 percent of the worldwide advanced 28nm-chip market. In April, the company said that revenue generated from its 28nm chips for this year would be triple that of last year, driven by strong demand for smartphones and tablets.
Speaking at a Computex summit forum, Been-Jon Woo (金平中), director of TSMC’s business development unit, said the company had created a “unique” business model, dubbed “Grand Alliance,” to grow along with its customers, and the success of this strategy is evidenced by its robust 28nm chip business.
TSMC’s 28nm chip customers include US mobile phone chip designer Qualcomm Inc and Taiwan’s MediaTek Inc (聯發科). The company’s equipment for such advanced chips is likely to continue to be fully utilized as was the case last year, the company said earlier.
“This year, TSMC is forecast to ship 1.5 million 12-inch wafers on advanced 28nm process technology,” Woo said.
“Twenty-eight-nanometer [chips] will contribute greatly to the company’s revenue,” she said, adding that “mobile [device demand] is the driver.”
TSMC chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday also voiced optimism for growth in cloud-based mobile products, as cloud technology has become one of the key areas of development for the mobile industry and has helped TSMC grow rapidly over recent years.
The company expects 28nm chips to make up at least 30 percent of its total revenue this year. Last quarter, TSMC made 24 percent of its NT$132.76 billion (US$4.44 billion) revenue from selling 28nm chips.
That gives the firm a significant edge, as local rival United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) said last month that it would not see a meaningful revenue contribution from 28nm chips before the end of the year.
Responding to questions on how to cope with growing competition from South Korean firms, Samsung Electronics Co in particular, Woo said TSMC is different from its competitors in that the company does not compete with its customers but concentrates on providing them with the most cost-effective products.
Separately, PC vendor Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) chief executive officer Jerry Shen (沈振來) yesterday said on the sidelines of the forum that the company plans to launch new tablets this fall, using Quaclomm’s latest processors for tablets, supporting 4G long-term evolution technology.
Shen also showcased the company’s new “Padfone Infinity,” equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 processor. The product is the third-generation of “phablet” devices developed by Asustek, which combine the function of a mobile phone with those of a tablet.
The forum was attended by a number of other technology heavyweights, including Steve Mollenkopf, president and chief operating officer of Qualcomm, and Ian Drew, chief marketing officer and executive vice president of business development at UK chip designer ARM Holdings PLC.
Additional reporting by CNA
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong