7nm and so on are no fun! Chinese manufacturers threw a large number of expedited orders to TSMC to stock up, and were willing to pay an extra 40% premium

Lead

Recently, it was reported that TSMC received many urgent orders from Chinese manufacturers this time, and also made it clear that they were willing to pay an additional 40% premium fee, which undoubtedly surprised TSMC, after all, the premium fee alone is a huge expenditure, and many urgent orders are super urgent orders, which can't help but make people curious, why Chinese manufacturers have expanded the gap to such a cruel point at this point in time.

In addition, TSMC's latest quarterly report shows that the gross profit margin in the first quarter of this year has risen significantly, and the dividend has decreased by three percentage points year-on-year.

Moreover, TSMC said that it will continue to invest in semiconductor technology, and some people on the island believe that TSMC is doing this to get back the advanced technology process that others are proud of.

China Rush Order.

And this 40% premium fee is actually accumulated in every order, which undoubtedly makes TSMC, which has occupied a leading position in the global semiconductor industry, proud, but this premium fee is actually not very prominent, and even what is really surprising is that after TSMC uses up its total premium fee, the premium fee per order is still reduced.

This means that TSMC has received these urgent orders are not too many, and it is also a long Tao Tie to drive fast, and the number of urgent orders received this time shows the importance of TSMC's Tao Bao, after all, TSMC has now become the big treasure of semiconductor manufacturers all over the world, which undoubtedly makes TSMC feel powerless, and after receiving so many orders, TSMC also said that it is impossible to disclose the list of customers in these orders to the outside world, but from the perspective of the increased number of orders, A large proportion of them come from Chinese mainland.

On the other hand, the proportion of orders from TSMC's customers in Chinese mainland has also increased from 11% to 16%, and among TSMC's customers in other countries, the proportion of industrial powers such as United States and Europe and Japan is definitely not ordinary, and the orders received by TSMC, including orders with major customer information, are also restricted from being transmitted to the outside world.

However, before that, it was reported that TSMC's main orders included Bitmain, Alibaba's Pingtou Semiconductor, and ZTE Microelectronics Technology Company, etc., and with the orders of three large factories, it won half of the orders received by TSMC in Chinese mainland.

However, it is reported that most of these orders belong to orders for 7nm or below processes, because when the process of the presidential podium was promoted, it had already been emphasized: "The advanced process of 7nm and below is not intended to be used by China and other countries."

TSMC's hard-nosed posture has once again been confirmed.

Global supply and demand are uneven.

In fact, the first thing to contact from receiving an urgent order is the supply and demand problem of the global semiconductor industry, and the current information on the supply and demand relationship of the global semiconductor industry is messy, and no one can say whether it is good or bad, but it can be seen that it is chaotic, and the degree of chaos is fierce.

The impact of the epidemic on the semiconductor industry is not actually a single country, but the entire global electronics industry, which is inextricably linked to the rise in people's demand for electronic equipment under the epidemic.

First of all, during the epidemic, foreign countries are very worried about the situation outside the wall, but with the progress of vaccination, the worries of the epidemic have gradually passed, and many countries have begun to resume production in a decent way, as far as the semiconductor industry is concerned, with the large use of hardware such as automatic driving, 5G, and industrial Internet in the country, the semiconductor industry is of course one of the industries that have benefited the most, which will inevitably lead to an increase in a large number of orders in the semiconductor industry.

On the other hand, the reason is that enterprises that actively seek production transfer, while escaping the catastrophe, are naturally willing to speed up the purchase of semiconductor equipment for their own production stability, so as to reduce the risk caused by subsequent uncontrollable factors. The lesson of the 119 incident is the dark channel of the semiconductor industry.

On the other hand, the demand for semiconductor equipment not only belongs to semiconductor equipment manufacturers, but even enterprises and individuals will maintain a certain amount of purchase of semiconductor production equipment for their own stability, in order to avoid not being able to buy equipment and not being able to enter the flow at that time.

The other is semiconductor equipment manufacturers, although they are not as strong as TSMC, but they are bound to indirectly benefit from this situation of short supply when TSMC and silicon wafer factories are facing a gap this time.

In this situation where the global semiconductor industry is in short supply, TSMC is the world's largest chip foundry, for the global semiconductor industry, in fact, it has just begun, so in this situation of short supply, the global semiconductor industry is naturally very worried, so it is not sure about the future development, after all, the world is moving in the direction of semiconductors, and in the case of contrarian trends, there are not many people who dare to say their accounts, let alone worry.

TSMC gross margin.

The growth of TSMC's gross profit margin actually depends on the orders received this time, and the importance reflected in this order, on the one hand, reflects TSMC's position in the all-semiconductor industry, but in fact, it is more important to reflect the importance of the Chinese market, and TSMC's orders in the Chinese market have also greatly boosted its gross profit margin, so TSMC should not take the next step of process technology lightly.

Because of the advanced technology of 7nm and below, the cost of research and development is very huge, many people have two views on this, on the one hand, China can develop it itself, why should it buy from others, on the other hand, there is also a direct purchase of the latest technology, is not the same as direct ownership, both have their own reasons.

However, TSMC chose to take the advanced technology of 7nm and below in its hands, because there must be a gap between the direct research of the advanced process of 7nm and below, the former is already in the stage of research maturity, which has a clear boundary, and the research of mature technology is obviously a step-by-step research, the potential technology is gradually decreasing, and the research difficulty is gradually decreasing, so the risk is reduced.

On the contrary, if it is a research immature technology, the potential technology is vacant, so the risk is also very large, plus the research of advanced processes of 7nm and below, the time spent is huge, and it cannot be guaranteed to succeed in the end, so in this risk, TSMC's restriction of technology below 59nm is an obvious measure, on the one hand, it is to protect its own technology and risk control, on the other hand, because TSMC has a mature research process, which is not available to others, and TSMC has such a practice, It is also very reasonable.

epilogue

In short, because TSMC's process research below 7nm is relatively mature, its risk is also small, but many other countries do not have mature advanced processes, so TSMC's decision is also very appropriate, which can not only make full use of its own advanced technology to gain more market share, but also effectively avoid the risks it faces.

It is hoped that with the normal capacity operation of the wafer factory, the global semiconductor industry can return to normal as soon as possible and provide sufficient guarantee for the global demand for chips, while the mainland will rely on TSMC's production capacity in the short term, and the future shortcomings will be slowly solved.