A 20 percent increase in the purchase of semiconductor production equipment in the third quarter helped Taiwan regain its status as the world’s biggest semiconductor equipment market in the world, leapfrogging China.
Taiwan’s semiconductor equipment purchases during the period rose 21 percent from a quarter earlier and 34 percent from a year earlier to US$3.9 billion, according to data from SEMI, a global industry association that serves the electronics industry supply chain.
That vaulted Taiwan into the top spot ahead of the second-quarter leader China, which purchased US$3.44 billion in semiconductor equipment in the quarter, up 2 percent from a quarter earlier, but down 14 percent from a year earlier, SEMI figures showed.
Taiwan was ranked third in semiconductor equipment purchases throughout last year, behind South Korea and China.
However, it rose to first in the first quarter of this year and second in the second quarter largely because of an aggressive expansion of capacity and development of new processes by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電).
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, with a more than 50 percent share in the global market, is developing sophisticated 7 nanometer, 5nm and 3nm processes that require big investments in equipment able to achieve the miniaturization demanded by the new technologies.
After launching mass production of the 7nm process last year, TSMC is scheduled to start commercial production of 5nm and 3nm technologies next year and 2022, respectively.
According to a market estimate, TSMC alone had capital expenditure of about NT$98.12 billion (US$3.22 billion) in the third quarter.
For this year as whole, the company estimated capital expenditure at between US$14 billion and US$15 billion, the highest level in the company’s history.
TSMC said its capex for next year could stay at a similar level.
After Taiwan and China, North America took third place in the rankings after purchasing US$2.49 billion in semiconductor equipment in the third quarter, up 47 percent from a year earlier and up 96 percent from a year earlier, SEMI said.
South Korea came in fourth with purchases of US$2.2 billion, down 15 percent from a quarter earlier and down 36 percent from a year earlier.
In the third quarter, semiconductor equipment shipments worldwide totaled US$14.86 billion, up 12 percent from a quarter earlier but down 6 percent from a year earlier, SEMI said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to