Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday.
TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report.
While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders due to US tariff measures helped limit TSMC’s revenue decline in the quarter, it said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
In contrast, Samsung’s sales fell 11.3 percent sequentially to US$2.89 billion last quarter and its market share slid to 7.7 percent from 8.1 percent over the period, the report said.
TrendForce attributed Samsung’s falling sales to fewer benefits from China’s subsidy programs and the US’ export restrictions on advanced chips.
As a result, the gap between TSMC and Samsung widened to 59.9 percentage points last quarter from 59 percentage points a quarter earlier, it said.
TSMC shares closed up 1.01 percent at NT$1,005 yesterday, passing NT$1,000 for the first time since March 7, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
The report also highlighted the Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp’s (SMIC, 中芯) rising competitiveness in mature nodes, as the firm posted increases in sales and market share.
SMIC remained third in the global foundry business, with revenue of US$2.25 billion, up 1.8 percent quarterly, and a market share of 6 percent, compared with 5.5 percent the previous quarter, the report said.
Its gap with Samsung narrowed to 1.7 percentage points last quarter from 2.6 percentage points three months earlier, it added.
United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) ranked fourth, with US$1.76 billion in revenue and a 4.7 percent market share, ahead of US-based GlobalFoundries Inc in fifth place, with a revenue of US$1.58 billion and a market share of 4.2 percent, it said.
In sixth to 10th places were Huahong Group (華虹) with US$1.01 billion in revenue and 2.7 percent market share, Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) with US$363 million and 1 percent market share, Tower Semiconductor Ltd with US$358 million and 0.9 percent share, NexChip Co (晶合集成) with US$353 million and 0.9 percent, and Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) with US$327 million and 0.9 percent, the report said.
The combined revenue of the top 10 wafer foundry companies fell 5.4 percent sequentially to US$36.4 billion last quarter due to seasonal weakness, although rush orders from clients and China’s consumer subsidies partially offset the slowdown in demand, TrendForce said.
For this quarter, the industry’s capacity utilization and revenue growth would be supported by China’s subsidy programs, the building of prelaunch inventories for new smartphone models, and stable demand for AI and HPC applications, although the effect of tariff-driven front-loading shipments are expected to fade for foundries.
UNCERTAINTIES: Exports surged 34.1% and private investment grew 7.03% to outpace expectations in the first half, although US tariffs could stall momentum The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 3.05 percent this year on a robust first-half performance, but warned that US tariff threats and external uncertainty could stall momentum in the second half of the year. “The first half proved exceptionally strong, allowing room for optimism,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “But the growth momentum may slow moving forward due to US tariffs.” The tariff threat poses definite downside risks, although the scale of the impact remains unclear given the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s policies, Lien said. Despite the headwinds, Taiwan is likely
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
READY TO BUY: Shortly after Nvidia announced the approval, Chinese firms scrambled to order the H20 GPUs, which the company must send to the US government for approval Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) late on Monday said the technology giant has won approval from US President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run China Global Television Network in remarks shown on X. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us
The National Stabilization Fund (NSF, 國安基金) is to continue supporting local shares, as uncertainties in international politics and the economy could affect Taiwanese industries’ global deployment and corporate profits, as well as affect stock movement and investor confidence, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement yesterday. The NT$500 billion (US$17.1 billion) fund would remain active in the stock market as the US’ tariff measures have not yet been fully finalized, which would drive international capital flows and global supply chain restructuring, the ministry said after the a meeting of the fund’s steering committee. Along with ongoing geopolitical risks and an unfavorable
RSS