Vinayak Agrawal’s Post

https://lnkd.in/gfkWh8hA A tale of two logic foundry markets. It's interesting that while SMIC is signalling oversupply and weak demand, TSMC is more or less sold out on the bleeding edge process nodes and the company increased billing by 60% in April. It seems to make sense since markets like automotive have been slowing down at the same time as the datacenter/AI/HPC segment is still booming and the smartphone and PC markets are seeing a rebound. As for myself, I am holding on to my TSMC shares... #semiconductors #foundry #tsmc

People criticized 台積電 for trying to copy their management model in Taiwan on foreign lands. Very soon, the same situation may repeat in Dresden, Germany, if the stakeholders fail to ask questions to themselves about the purpose of TSMC's overseas expansion. What do the stakeholders of TSMC Arizona want from this operation? TSMC management and #supplychain partners should also ask themselves about the company's goals and purposes of setting up fabs overseas, where the culture and mindsets differ from where they came from. #semiconductor

Key Factors Fueling TSMC's Leadership in Advanced Chip Manufacturing Estimated Year-on-Year Revenue Growth Rate and Market Share of Major Wafer Foundries: #Semiconductor #Semiconductormanufacturing #semiconductors #Semiconductorindustry #SemiEDA #Semiconductortechnology #Semicon #TSMC #Samsung

Thus far TSMC N2 has won the overwhelming majority of the big design wins so this does not surprise me at all. Same trend as TSMC N3 had absolutely. #Semiconductor #Semiconductormanufacturing #semiconductors #Semiconductorindustry #SemiEDA #Semiconductortechnology

Interesting read on TSMC in Arizona.

Node-to-node density scaling has gotten progressively more difficult even for TSMC, since as early as 16nm. https://lnkd.in/gTk_pd_6 https://lnkd.in/greEC-iz https://lnkd.in/g_rwwrbE

Did you know that a single chip can travel more than 25,000 miles before ending up in a system or a piece of PCB in your car? That's a lot of unnecessary travel and cost in the semiconductor supply chain. While I believe that the semiconductor industry cannot be localized, the Chipacts Movement can help cut costs and streamline the supply chain process without focusing on localization. Let's start improve efficiency and cost-cutting in the semiconductor industry from today, maybe tomorrow be too late. #semiconductor #supplychain #efficiency #ChipactsMovement

ChangXin Memory Technologies, Inc. of China has been trying to catch up to Samsung Semiconductor, SK hynix and Micron Technology in DRAM technology https://lnkd.in/gjm5-wmc #DRAM manufacturing is another technology that hit physical and economics limits much before logic hit lithography limits, nearly a decade has passed since Moore's law became a crawl in DRAM space. Since top line of the technology isn't growing, the competition can catch fast and that what is happening here #CXMT has under 1% of global marketshare but I guess this will increase in coming years. US govt may try to restrict equipment sales to CXMT but I think these new restrictions will be the least effective and most counterproductive - most of tech used is years old (vs logic chips)

This is huge. TSMC is now a monopoly, with no competition in sight for years in the top end of the market (where most money is made in foundry business) Samsung Foundry Faces Yield Struggles and Client Losses, External Push for Spinoff and U.S. Listing https://lnkd.in/gch6biiU (UPDATE: TSMC reportedly planning to charge 2x for N2 wafers vs N4 wafers - https://lnkd.in/gRqYfXZf ) Intel Foundry has its latest nodes Intel3, which is really a spruced up 7nm (Intel used to publicly talk about 7nm node until Pat Gelsinger came and started calling it Intel4; and then they created what they would have earlier called a 7++ and they now call it Intel3) So Intel Corporation doesn't really have anything equivalent to N3. They claim they will go to production next year with 18A, but TSMC claimed a year ago that their N3P is better in density and performance. Also there have been rumours that all is not well with 18A yields Samsung Semiconductor was the only foundry other than TSMC producing chips smaller than N5 of TSMC. But yield problems have plagued them for a long time. NVIDIA and Qualcomm both used to be steadfast customers of Samsung foundry, both moved away in last several years due to these issues. Lately news had been coming that these issues are resolved. However now new information says Samsung may even be planning a spinoff ! This will lead to a TSMC monopoly

"Looking ahead, Konrad Young believes that Japan's chip industry is in a better position to compete than before and that #Taiwan and #Japan are "two complementary powerhouses". TSMC's sole focus on logic ICs, for example, allows it to work with Japan's material, equipment, and memory sectors. The foundry's 3DIC R&D center in Japan is also supported by Japanese material suppliers such as ShinEtsu, Ibiden, and Showa Denko. #Rapidus, the Japanese government-backed foundry that aims to bring the 2nm process into volume production in 2027, along with the Leading-edge #Semiconductor Technology Center (LSTC), are however deemed by Young as competitors to TSMC."