TSMC may have record capital expenditure next year

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Recently, the PC industry has been hit by the macroeconomic impact, and companies such as Intel, Nvidia, and AMD have been hit hard. Although TSMC can still maintain growth in revenue, the combination of various external unfavorable factors and the aggressive investment moves by rival Samsung in the semiconductor business will put TSMC under increasing pressure.

According to UDN, TSMC’s capital expenditure in 2023 is likely to hit a new record high. At present, TSMC is trying to cope with rising costs and slowing customer demand to ensure capacity utilization and maintain its capital expenditure growth. While Intel has delayed the release of Meteor Lake and Apple seems to have slowed the pace of advanced process introduction, a key factor in TSMC’s decision came from Samsung.

TSMC FINFLEX technology

At present, Samsung has mass-produced the 3nm GAA process and earlier announced its own 2nm and 1.4nm process roadmaps, plus a large number of EUV lithography machines to expand production capacity, which requires the support of a large number of capital expenditures. Samsung plans to spend $355 billion in semiconductor and biotechnology over the next five years, for technology research and development, the purchase of various expensive equipment, and the construction of factories.

In terms of time, Samsung’s 2nm process and TSMC’s pace are almost the same, both in 2025. The difference is that TSMC will use GAA (Gate-All-Around) transistors for the first time on the 2nm process to replace FinFET transistors, which will be a test.

Some analysts said that part of TSMC’s increased capital expenditure next year will come from this year’s part. Higher costs and a downturn in the industry have led TSMC to allocate some of this year’s capital expenditures to next year. It is said that TSMC’s capital expenditure is close to $40 billion this year, will exceed $41 billion next year and even reach more than $42 billion.

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