Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its clients prioritize quality above pricing in response to reports that rival Samsung Electronics Co is cutting prices to seize a sizeable share of the future market for chips using an advanced technology still under development.
“[TSMC] clients always focus on product quality,” TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) said on the sidelines of a government technology advisory conference in Taipei.
Liu’s remarks came as the Financial Times reported earlier this week that Samsung was offering cut-price versions of its latest 2-nanometer prototypes to attract the interest of big-name customers, such as artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Both TSMC and Samsung expect to begin producing chips using the 2-nanometer process in 2025, and the Financial Times reported that Qualcomm Inc already intends to shift production of its next-generation high-end mobile chips from TSMC to Samsung’s 2-nanometer process.
The Financial Times also reported that TSMC has already shown the process test results for its “N2” or 2-nanometer prototypes to some of its biggest customers, such as Nvidia and Apple Inc.
The report said Apple is expected to use TSMC’s 2-nanometer process to roll out chips for iPhone 17 production in 2025.
The most advanced technology currently being used by TSMC to make chips is the 3-nanometer process, which entered mass production late last year.
The company is also developing a 1.4-nanometer process to maintain its lead over its peers in the global market, while it is still seeking a venue in Taiwan to build a 1.4-nanometer wafer fab.
In addition to the report by the Financial Times, Nvidia chief financial officer Colette Kress said at a global technology forum organized by UBS Group AG that her company would be glad to find a third party for outsourcing after TSMC and Samsung, but still needed some time to figure it out.
She was thought to be referring to Intel Corp, which has voiced ambitions to overtake Samsung and eventually TSMC in the pure-play foundry market.
TSMC continued to dominate in the global pure-play foundry market with a 57.9 percent share in the third quarter of the year, with Samsung coming in second with a 12.4 percent share, while Intel’s foundry business took just a 1 percent share, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week.
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