TSMC said the chip supply shortage will continue until next year, 2nm process will be put into production in 2025

TSMC’s chief financial officer Mr. Wendell Huang mentioned at a meeting the revenue outlook for the fourth quarter of this year, and it will be between $15.4 billion and $15.7 billion, a quarterly increase of about 3.5% to 5.5%. It is expected to reach a new high, but the problem of insufficient production capacity of the foundry that has plagued the industry still cannot be solved this year, and it will continue next year.

He emphasized that TSMC’s current foundry capacity is still in short supply, mainly from the strong demand for 5G-related chips and high-performance computing chips. In addition, other fields such as automobiles, the Internet of Things, and servers have continued to increase in demand, which has driven TSMC’s production capacity to still be in short supply.

Although 5G and high-performance computing chips require TSMC’s newer 5nm or 7nm process production, IoT and automotive chips usually use more mature old processes, such as 16nm or 28nm. Previously, we also reported that TSMC intends to increase the foundry cost of mature process nodes. Although newer nodes such as 6/7nm have also increased, the rate of increase is much lower. The replacement cost of the latest 5nm process next year will remain flat or decrease next year.

When he was asked about the competitor’s mass production of 2nm in 2025, Mr. Wendell Huang said that he would not comment on the competitor’s manufacturing process, however, TSMC’s 2nm process is expected to be put into production in 2025, and said that transistor density, performance, and power consumption have very good advantages, and they are confident that they will still maintain the lead at 2nm process.