Sales from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) largest customer grew to account for 26 percent of the chipmaker’s total revenue last year.
Although TSMC financial data did not specify the customer, analysts said they suspect it was Apple Inc.
TSMC’s largest customer contributed NT$405.4 billion (US$14.27 billion) to the chipmaker’s sales, up NT$68.63 billion or 20.37 percent from 2020.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, Bloomberg
That brought the largest customer’s share of TSMC’s sales to 26 percent, up from 25 percent a year earlier.
The data reinforced analysts’ suspicions that the customer is Apple, as revenue from its TSMC orders grew more than 20 percent from a year earlier.
TSMC’s consolidated revenue reached a record NT$1.587 trillion last year, up 18.53 percent from 2020, on the back of emerging technologies such as 5G and Internet of Things applications, high-performance computing devices and automotive electronics.
TSMC is believed to be the sole supplier of A-series processors for Apple’s iPhone line because of the chipmaker’s advanced 5-nanometer process, which is the latest technology the Taiwanese company has used for commercial production, analysts said.
Apple’s Mac and iPad lines have also used TSMC’s chips, analysts said.
Apple last week unveiled the M1 Ultra chip, which the company says is the next leap forward for its silicon program and the Mac.
Analysts said that TSMC is expected to benefit from the debut of the M1 Ultra chip this year.
Last year, TSMC’s second-largest customer contributed NT$153.74 billion to its sales, accounting for 10 percent of the chipmaker’s total, company data showed.
Analysts said they suspect the customer was Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD).
TSMC’s data indicated it was the first time sales from its second-largest customer rose to 10 percent of its total sales.
The US market was the largest buyer of TSMC’s chips last year, generating NT$1.01 trillion in sales, up 24 percent from a year earlier, and making up 64 percent of the chipmaker’s total.
That was followed by Taiwan, where the company generated NT$203.96 billion in sales, a 58 percent increase from a year earlier and accounting for 12.8 percent of TSMC’s total sales.
China was third, generating NT$164.55 billion in sales, down 29.6 percent from a year earlier and representing 10.3 percent of the chipmaker’s total sales, TSMC’s data showed.
Analysts said the decline in sales to China largely reflected Washington’s sanctions against Huawei Technologies Co (華為), which led to TSMC halting shipments to the Chinese firm.
TSMC said its 7-nanometer process created NT$440.38 billion in sales last year, up 11.5 percent from a year earlier, while the 5-nanometer process registered NT$262.33 billion in sales, up 188 percent from a year earlier. The technologies were the major sources of sales for TSMC.
TSMC is developing the more sophisticated 3 and 2-nanometer processes, and it is set to start mass production using 3-nanometer technology in the second half of the year.
POTENTIAL SETBACK: Although Chinese chip designers and foundry firms already have US EDA software, they might be unable to update those programs under new US rules The US’ latest ban on advanced electronic design automation (EDA) software exports to China might hinder Chinese chip companies from accessing advanced semiconductor technology, as they attempt to upgrade to 3-nanometer processes in the next three to five years, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. The US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security on Friday announced bans on EDA tools for gate-all-around field-effect transistors (GAAFET), a new-generation semiconductor technology that US chipmaker Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co from South Korea are adopting to make 4-nanometer and 3-nanometer chips. The bureau in a statement said that gate-all-around field-effect transistor
WIDENING THE FIELD: Human resources managers must drop prejudices regarding gender, appearance and age to find the best candidates, Micro Technology said The job market for Taiwan’s semiconductor industry remained tight this quarter, as hiring activity slowed from a record high last quarter, a survey released yesterday by online human resource firm 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) showed. Ongoing labor shortages have prompted local semiconductor firms to recruit more women and foreigners in Taiwan and in Southeast Asia, the job bank said. The talent gap in the first quarter reached 35,000 people per month, a surge of 39.8 percent from the same period last year, as the contactless economy and digital transformation shore up demand for semiconductors, 104 Job Bank said in its annual report
POSITIVE CULTURE: Pursuing 12-inch wafers earlier than peers helped TSMC lead the industry, said a former executive, whose main regret was working for SMIC in China Corporate culture at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is what made the chipmaker a leading player in the global industry, a former executive said in an interview with California’s Computer History Museum. “One of the really important reasons that TSMC succeeded” is the culture at the firm, where “if equipment went down at two o’clock in the morning, we just called an equipment engineer,” and the worker would not complain, said former TSMC joint chief operating officer Chiang Shan-yi (蔣尚義). “We didn’t really do anything special, anything great, but we didn’t make any major mistakes,” when compared with competitors, such
Cloud computing equipment company Wiwynn Corp (緯穎科技), which counts Meta Platforms Inc as one of its key customers, is boosting capacity expansion in Malaysia through a new investment of about NT$1.94 billion (US$64.7 million), it said yesterday in a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The investment, which aims to help the company with business development and strategic arrangements, would be made through subsidiary Wiwynn Technology Services Malaysia Sdn Bhd to build a new factory, Wiwynn said in the filing. The announcement came about one-and-a-half months after the company started phase II of its new server printed circuit board assembly (PCBA)