Taiwan's exports of integrated circuits amounted to $184 billion in 2022,accounted for nearly 25 percent of Taiwan's GDP. TSMC accounts for about 30 percent of the Taiwan Stock Exchange's main index.[13][14]
TSMC was founded in Taiwan in 1987 by Morris Chang as the world's first dedicated semiconductor foundry. It has long been the leading company in its field.[15][16] When Chang retired in 2018,after 31 years of TSMC leadership,Mark Liu became chairman and C. C. Wei became Chief Executive.[17][18] It has been listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE:2330) since 1993;in 1997 it became the first Taiwanese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:TSM). Since 1994,TSMC has had a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.4% in revenue and a CAGR of 16.1% in earnings.[19]
TSMC has a global capacity of about thirteen million 300mm-equivalent wafers per year as of 2020 and makes chips for customers with process nodes from 2 microns to 3 nanometres. TSMC was the first foundry to market 7-nanometre and 5-nanometre (used by the 2020 Apple A14 and M1SoCs,the MediaTek Dimensity 8100,and AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors) production capabilities,and the first to commercialize extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology in high volume.
History
In 1986,Li Kwoh-ting,representing the Executive Yuan,invited Morris Chang to serve as the president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and offered him a blank check to build Taiwan's chip industry. At that time,the Taiwanese government wanted to develop its semiconductor industry,but its high investment and high risk nature made it difficult to find investors. Texas Instruments and Intel turned down Chang. Only Philips was willing to sign a joint venture contract with Taiwan to put up $58million,transfer its production technology,and license intellectual property in exchange for a 27.5 percent stake in TSMC. Alongside generous tax benefits,the Taiwanese government,through the National Development Fund,Executive Yuan,provided another 48 percent of the startup capital for TSMC,and the rest of the capital was raised from several of the island's wealthiest families,who owned firms that specialized in plastics,textiles,and chemicals. These wealthy Taiwanese were directly "asked" by the government to invest. "What generally happened was that one of the ministers in the government would call a businessman in Taiwan," Chang explained,"to get him to invest." From day one,TSMC was not really a private business:it was a project of the Taiwanese state.[24][25][26] Its first CEO was James E. Dykes,who left after a year and Morris Chang became the CEO.[27]
Since then,the company has continued to grow,albeit subject to the cycles of demand. In 2011,the company planned to increase research and development expenditures by almost 39% to NT$50billion to fend off growing competition.[28] The company also planned to expand capacity by 30% in 2011 to meet strong market demand.[29] In May 2014,TSMC's board of directors approved capital appropriations of US$568million to increase and improve manufacturing capabilities after the company forecast higher than expected demand.[30] In August 2014,TSMC's board of directors approved additional capital appropriations of US$3.05billion.[31]
In 2011,it was reported that TSMC had begun trial production of the A5 SoC and A6 SoCs for Apple's iPad and iPhone devices.[32][33] According to reports,[34] in May 2014 Apple sourced its A8 and A8X SoCs from TSMC.[35][36] Apple then sourced the A9 SoC with both TSMC and Samsung (to increase volume for iPhone 6S launch) and the A9X exclusively with TSMC,thus resolving the issue of sourcing a chip in two different microarchitecture sizes. As of 2014,Apple was TSMC's most important customer.[36][37]
In October 2014,ARM and TSMC announced a new multi-year agreement for the development of ARM based 10nm FinFET processors.[38]
In 2020,TSMC became the first semiconductor company in the world to sign up for the RE100 initiative,pledging to use 100% renewable energy by 2050.[39] TSMC accounts for roughly 5% of the energy consumption in Taiwan,even exceeding that of the capital city Taipei. This initiative was thus expected to accelerate the transformation to renewable energy in the country.[40]
For 2020,TSMC had a net income of US$17.60billion on a consolidated revenue of US$45.51billion,an increase of 57.5% and 31.4% respectively from the 2019 level of US$11.18billion net income and US$34.63billion consolidated revenue.[41] Its market capitalization was over $550billion[clarification needed] in April 2021.[citation needed] TSMC's revenue in the first quarter of 2020 reached US$10billion,[42] while its market capitalization was US$254billion.[43] TSMC's market capitalization reached a value of NT$1.9trillion (US$63.4billion) in December 2010.[44] It was ranked 70th in the FT Global 500 2013 list of the world's most highly valued companies with a capitalization of US$86.7billion,[45] while reaching US$110billion in May 2014.[43] In March 2017,TSMC's market capitalization surpassed that of semiconductor giant Intel for the first time,hitting NT$5.14trillion (US$168.4billion),with Intel's at US$165.7billion.[46] On 27 June 2020,TSMC briefly became the world's 10th most valuable company,with a market capitalization of US$410billion.[47]
As the risk of a war between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China increases,TSMC and its investors have explored options to mitigate the consequences of such an event. Since the beginning of the 2020s,TSMC has expanded its operations outside of the island of Taiwan,opening new fabs in Japan and the United States,with further plans for expansion into Germany.[48] In July 2020,TSMC confirmed it would halt the shipment of silicon wafers to Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer Huawei and its subsidiary HiSilicon by 14 September.[49][50]
In November 2020,officials in Phoenix,Arizona in the United States approved TSMC's plan to build a $12billion chip plant in the city. The decision to locate a plant in the US came after the Trump administration warned about the issues concerning the world's electronics made outside of the U.S.[51] In 2021,news reports claimed that the facility might be tripled to roughly a $35billion investment with six factories.[52] See TSMC §Arizona for more details.
In June 2021,following nearly a year of public controversy surrounding its COVID-19 vaccine shortage,[53][54][55][56] with only about 10% of its 23.5million population vaccinated;[53] Taiwan agreed to allow TSMC and Foxconn to jointly negotiate purchasing COVID-19 vaccines on its behalf.[55][53] In July 2021,BioNTech's Chinese sales agent Fosun Pharma announced that the two technology manufacturers had reached an agreement to purchase 10 million BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines from Germany.[55][53] TSMC and Foxconn pledged to each buy five million doses for up to $175million,[55] for donation to Taiwan's vaccination program.[53]
In November 2021,TSMC and Sony announced that TSMC would be establishing a new subsidiary named Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing[ja;zh] (JASM) in Kumamoto,Japan. The new subsidiary will manufacture 22- and 28-nanometer processes. The initial investment will be approximately $7billion,with Sony investing approximately $500million for a less than 20% stake. Construction of the fabrication plant is expected to start in 2022,with production targeted to begin two years later in 2024.[58][59]
In February 2022,TSMC,Sony Semiconductor Solutions,and Denso announced that Denso would take a more than 10% equity stake in JASM with a US$0.35billion investment,amid a scarcity of chips for automobiles.[60][61][62] TSMC will also enhance JASM's capabilities with 12/16 nanometer FinFET process technology in addition to the previously announced 22/28 nanometer process and increase monthly production capacity from 45,000 to 55,000 12-inch wafers.[60][61][62] The total capital expenditure for JASM's Kumamoto fab is estimated to be approximately US$8.6billion.[60][61][62] The Japanese government wants JASM to supply essential chips to Japan's electronic device makers and auto companies as trade friction between the United States and China threatens to disrupt supply chains.[60][61][62] The fab is expected to directly create about 1,700 high-tech professional jobs.[60][61]
In July 2022,TSMC announced the company had posted a record profit in the second quarter,with net income up 76.4 percent year-over-year. The company saw steady growth in the automotive and data center sectors with some weakness in the consumer market. Some of the capital expenditures are projected to be pushed up to 2023.[63]
In the third quarter of 2022,Berkshire Hathaway disclosed purchase of 60 million shares in TSMC,acquiring a $4.1billion stake,making it one of its largest holdings in a technology company.[64] However,Berkshire sold off 86.2% of its stake by the next quarter citing geopolitical tensions as a factor.[65][66]
In February 2024,TSMC shares hit a record high,with the high on the trading day reaching NT$709 and closing at NT$697 (+8%). This was influenced by the increase in the price target on chip designer Nvidia. TSMC currently manufactures 3-nanometer chips and plans to start 2-nanometer mass production in 2025.[67]
Patent dispute with GlobalFoundries
On 26 August 2019,GlobalFoundries filed several patent infringement lawsuits against TSMC in the US and Germany claiming that TSMC's 7nm,10nm,12nm,16nm,and 28nm nodes infringed 16 of their patents.[68] GlobalFoundries named twenty defendants.[69] TSMC said that they were confident that the allegations were baseless.[70]
On 1 October 2019,TSMC filed patent infringement lawsuits against GlobalFoundries in the US,Germany and Singapore,claiming that GlobalFoundries' 12nm,14nm,22nm,28nm and 40nm nodes infringed 25 of their patents.[71]
On 29 October 2019,TSMC and GlobalFoundries announced a resolution to the dispute,agreeing to a life-of-patentscross-license for all of their existing semiconductor patents and new patents for the next 10 years.[72][73][74][75][76]
Sales and market trends
This article appears to be slanted towards recent events. Please try to keep recent events in historical perspective and add more content related to non-recent events.(January 2022)
TSMC and the rest of the foundry industry are exposed to the cyclical industrial dynamics of the semiconductor industry. TSMC must ensure its production capacity to meet strong customer demand during upturns. However, during downturns, it must contend with excess capacity because of weak demand and the high fixed costs associated with its manufacturing facilities.[79] As a result, the company's financial results tend to fluctuate with a cycle time of a few years. This is more apparent in earnings than revenues because of the general trend of revenue and capacity growth. TSMC's business has generally also been seasonal, with a peak in Q3 and a low in Q1.
In 2014, TSMC was at the forefront of the foundry industry for high-performance, low-power applications,[80][81] leading major smartphone chip companies such as Qualcomm,[82][83] Mediatek[83][84] and Apple[35][37] to place an increasing amount of orders.[80] While the competitors in the foundry industry (primarily GlobalFoundries and United Microelectronics Corporation) have encountered difficulties ramping leading-edge 28nm capacity,[84] the leading Integrated Device Manufacturers such as Samsung and Intel that seek to offer foundry capacity to third parties were also unable to match the requirements for advanced mobile applications.[81]
For most of 2014, TSMC saw a continuing increase in revenues due to increased demand, primarily due to chips for smartphone applications. TSMC raised its financial guidance in March 2014 and posted 'unseasonably strong' first-quarter results.[30][85] For Q2 2014, revenues came in at NT$183billion, with 28nm technology business growing more than 30% from the previous quarter.[86] Lead times for chip orders at TSMC increased due to a tight capacity situation, putting fabless chip companies at risk of not meeting their sales expectations or shipment schedules,[87] and in August 2014 it was reported that TSMC's production capacity for the fourth quarter of 2014 was already almost fully booked, a scenario that had not occurred for many years, which was described as being due to a ripple-effect due to TSMC landing CPU orders from Apple.[88]
However, monthly sales for 2014 peaked in October, decreasing by 10% in November due to cautious inventory adjustment actions taken by some of its customers.[89] TSMC's revenue for 2014 saw growth of 28% over the previous year, while TSMC forecasted that revenue for 2015 would grow by 15 to 20 percent from 2014, thanks to strong demand for its 20nm process, new 16nm FinFET process technology as well as continuing demand for 28nm, and demand for less advanced chip fabrication in its 200mm fabs.[89]
TSMC's N7+ is the first commercially available extreme-ultraviolet lithographic process in the semiconductor industry.[90] It uses ultraviolet patterning and enables more acute circuits to be implemented on the silicon. N7+ offers a 15–20% higher transistor density and 10% reduction in power consumption than previous technology.[91][92] The N7 achieved the fastest ever volume time to market, faster than 10nm and 16nm.[93]
The N5 iteration doubles transistor density and improves performance by an additional 15%.[94][95]
Production capabilities
On 300mm wafers, TSMC has silicon lithography on node sizes:
In press publications, these processes will often be referenced, for example, for the mobile variant, simply by 7nmFinFET or even more briefly by 7FF.
At the beginning of 2019, TSMC was advertising N7+, N7, and N6 as its leading edge technologies.[104]
As of June 2020, TSMC is the manufacturer selected for production of Apple's 5 nanometer ARM processors, as "the company plans to eventually transition the entire Mac lineup to its Arm-based processors, including the priciest desktop computers".[107]
In July 2020, TSMC signed a 20-year deal with Ørsted to buy the entire production of two offshore wind farms under development off Taiwan's west coast. At the time of its signing, it was the world's largest corporate green energy order ever made.[108]
In July 2021, both Apple and Intel were reported to be testing their proprietary chip designs with TSMC's 3nm production.[109]
Fab 21 under construction in Phoenix, Arizona in November 2023
In 2020, TSMC announced a planned fab in Phoenix, Arizona, intended to begin production by 2024 at a rate of 20,000 wafers per month. As of 2020, TSMC announced that it would bring its newest 5nm process to the Arizona facility, a significant break from its prior practice of limiting US fabs to older technologies. The Arizona plant was estimated to not be fully operational until 2024, when the 5nm process is projected to be replaced by TSMC's 3 nm process as the latest technology.[110] At launch it will be the most advanced fab in the United States.[111] TSMC plans to spend $12billion on the project over eight years, beginning in 2021.[110] TSMC claimed the plant will create 1,900 full-time jobs.[112]
In December 2022, TSMC announced its plans to triple its investment in the Arizona plants in response to the growing tensions between the US and China and the supply chain disruption that has led to chip shortages.[113] In that same month, TSMC stated that they were running into major cost issues, because the cost of construction of buildings and facilities in the US is four to five times what an identical plant would cost in Taiwan, (due to higher costs of labor, red tape, and training), as well as difficulty finding qualified personnel (for which it has hired US workers and sent them for training in Taiwan for 12–18 months.) These additional production costs will increase the cost of TSMC's chips made in the US to at least 50% more than the cost of chips made in Taiwan.[114][115][116] In July 2023 TSMC warned that US talent was insufficient, so Taiwanese workers will need to be brought in for a limited time, and that the chip factory won't be operational until 2025.[117] In September 2023, an analyst said the chips will still need to be sent back to Taiwan for packaging.[118] In January 2024, TSMC chairman Liu again warned that Arizona lacked workers with the specialized skills to hire and that TSMC's second Arizona plant likely won't start volume production of advanced chips until 2027 or 2028.[119]
In April 2024, the US Commerce Department agreed to provide $6.6 billion in direct funding and up to $5 billion in loans to TSMC for the purposes of creating semiconductor manufacturing facilities in Arizona. This action falls under the CHIPS and Science Act and is intended to boost domestic chip production for the USA.[120]
Central Taiwan Science Park
The investment of US$9.4billion to build its third 300mm wafer fabrication facility in Central Taiwan Science Park (Fab 15) was originally announced in 2010.[121] The facility was expected to manufacture over 100,000 wafers a month and generate US$5billion per year of revenue.[122] TSMC has continued to expand advanced 28nm manufacturing capacity at Fab 15.[123]
On 12 January 2011, TSMC announced the acquisition of land from Powerchip Semiconductor for NT$2.9billion (US$96million) to build two additional 300mm fabs (Fab 12B) to cope with increasing global demand.[124]
WaferTech subsidiary
WaferTech, a subsidiary of TSMC, is a pure-play semiconductor foundry based in Camas, Washington, 32km (20mi) outside Portland, Oregon. The WaferTech campus contains a 9.3ha (23 acres) complex housed on 105ha (260 acres), with a main fabrication facility consisting of a 12,000m2 (130,000sqft) 200mm wafer fabrication plant.[125] The site is the second-largest pure-play foundry in the United States, employing 1,100 workers.[citation needed] The largest is GlobalFoundries Fab 8 in Malta, New York, which employs over 3,000 workers with over 278,709m2 (3,000,000sqft) under one roof.
As of 2024, the facility supports node sizes of 0.35, 0.30, 0.25, 0.22, 0.18, and 0.16 micrometers, with an emphasis on embedded flash process technology.[126]
History
WaferTech was established in June 1996 as a joint venture with TSMC, Altera, Analog Devices, and ISSI as key partners. The four companies and minor individual investors placed US$1.2billion into this venture, which was at the time the single largest startup investment in the state of Washington. The company started production in July 1998 in its 200mm semiconductor fabrication plant. Its first product was a 0.35 micrometer part for Altera.[citation needed]
TSMC bought out the joint venture partners in 2000 and acquired full control, operating it as a fully owned subsidiary.[127]
In 2015, Dr. Tsung Kuo was named company president and fab director of WaferTech.[128]
Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to manufacture semiconductor devices, typically integrated circuits (ICs) such as computer processors, microcontrollers, and memory chips. It is a multiple-step photolithographic and physio-chemical process during which electronic circuits are gradually created on a wafer, typically made of pure single-crystal semiconducting material. Silicon is almost always used, but various compound semiconductors are used for specialized applications.
STMicroelectronics N.V. is a multinational corporation and technology company of French-Italian origin. It is headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, on the Euronext Paris in Paris and on the Borsa Italiana in Milan. ST is the largest European semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. The company resulted from the merger of two government-owned semiconductor companies in 1987: Thomson Semiconducteurs of France and SGS Microelettronica of Italy.
The semiconductor industry is the aggregate of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductors and semiconductor devices, such as transistors and integrated circuits. It formed around 1960, once the fabrication of semiconductor devices became a viable business. The industry's annual semiconductor sales revenue has since grown to over $481 billion, as of 2018.
The foundry model is a microelectronics engineering and manufacturing business model consisting of a semiconductor fabrication plant, or foundry, and an integrated circuit design operation, each belonging to separate companies or subsidiaries.
Fabless manufacturing is the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing their fabrication to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry. These foundries are typically, but not exclusively, located in the United States, China, and Taiwan. Fabless companies can benefit from lower capital costs while concentrating their research and development resources on the end market. Some fabless companies and pure play foundries may offer integrated-circuit design services to third parties.
In semiconductor manufacturing, silicon on insulator (SOI) technology is fabrication of silicon semiconductor devices in a layered silicon–insulator–silicon substrate, to reduce parasitic capacitance within the device, thereby improving performance. SOI-based devices differ from conventional silicon-built devices in that the silicon junction is above an electrical insulator, typically silicon dioxide or sapphire. The choice of insulator depends largely on intended application, with sapphire being used for high-performance radio frequency (RF) and radiation-sensitive applications, and silicon dioxide for diminished short-channel effects in other microelectronics devices. The insulating layer and topmost silicon layer also vary widely with application.
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is a partially state-owned publicly listed Chinese pure-play semiconductor foundry company. It is the largest contract chip maker in mainland China.
United Microelectronics Corporation is a Taiwanese company based in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It was founded as Taiwan's first semiconductor company in 1980 as a spin-off of the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).
In the microelectronics industry, a semiconductor fabrication plant is a factory for semiconductor device fabrication.
The "14 nanometer process" refers to a marketing term for the MOSFET technology node that is the successor to the "22nm" node. The "14nm" was so named by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). Until about 2011, the node following "22nm" was expected to be "16nm". All "14nm" nodes use FinFET technology, a type of multi-gate MOSFET technology that is a non-planar evolution of planar silicon CMOS technology.
In semiconductor fabrication, the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) defines the "10 nanometer process" as the MOSFET technology node following the "14 nm" node.
GlobalFoundries Inc. is a multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Malta, New York. Created by the divestiture of the manufacturing arm of AMD, the company was privately owned by Mubadala Investment Company, a sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates, until an initial public offering (IPO) in October 2021.
In semiconductor manufacturing, the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems defines the "5 nm" process as the MOSFET technology node following the "7 nm" node. In 2020, Samsung and TSMC entered volume production of "5 nm" chips, manufactured for companies including Apple, Marvell, Huawei and Qualcomm.
In semiconductor manufacturing, the "7 nm" process is a term for the MOSFET technology node following the "10 nm" node, defined by the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS), which was preceded by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). It is based on FinFET technology, a type of multi-gate MOSFET technology. As of 2021, the IRDS Lithography standard gives a table of dimensions for "7 nm", with a few given below:
In semiconductor manufacturing, the "3 nm" process is the next die shrink after the "5 nm" MOSFET technology node. South Korean chipmaker Samsung started shipping its "3 nm" gate all around (GAA) process, named "3GAA", in mid-2022. On 29 December 2022, Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC announced that volume production using its "3 nm" semiconductor node ("N3") was under way with good yields. An enhanced "3 nm" chip process called "N3E" may have started production in 2023. American manufacturer Intel planned to start 3 nm production in 2023.
In semiconductor manufacturing, the "2 nm process" is the next MOSFET die shrink after the "3 nm" process node.
The semiconductor industry, including Integrated Circuit (IC) manufacturing, design, and packaging, forms a major part of Taiwan's IT industry. Due to its strong capabilities in OEM wafer manufacturing and a complete industry supply chain, Taiwan has been able to distinguish itself as a leading microchip manufacturer and dominate the global marketplace. Taiwan’s semiconductor sector accounted for US$115 billion, around 20 percent of the global semiconductor industry. In sectors such as foundry operations, Taiwanese companies account for 50 percent of the world market, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) the biggest player in the foundry market.
The Chinese semiconductor industry, including integrated circuit design and manufacturing, forms a major part of mainland China's information technology industry.
The CHIPS and Science Act is a U.S. federal statute enacted by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on August 9, 2022. The act authorizes roughly $280 billion in new funding to boost domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States, for which it appropriates $52.7 billion. The act includes $39 billion in subsidies for chip manufacturing on U.S. soil along with 25% investment tax credits for costs of manufacturing equipment, and $13 billion for semiconductor research and workforce training, with the dual aim of strengthening American supply chain resilience and countering China. It also invests $174 billion in the overall ecosystem of public sector research in science and technology, advancing human spaceflight, quantum computing, materials science, biotechnology, experimental physics, research security, social and ethical considerations, workforce development and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at NASA, the NSF, the DOE, the EDA, and NIST.
↑ "猶太人與台積電的奇特淵源". www.upmedia.mg (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 上報. 16 February 2021. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
↑ "與飛利浦數度交手" (in Chinese (Taiwan)). CommonWealth Magazine. 1 April 1997. Archived from the original on 14 March 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
↑ Smith, Noah (7 February 2023). "The Build-Nothing Country – Stasis has become America's spoils system, and it can't go on". Archived from the original on 3 March 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2023. Even in semiconductors, the ultra-high-tech industry where the U.S. and its allies must maintain leadership in order to maintain their edge over China, the U.S. can't seem to build much. TSMC, the Taiwanese company that recently agreed to build a big plant in Arizona, is running into major cost issues:
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US$71.28 billion (2023)
US$36.49 billion (2022)
