Industry Expert Blogs

The TSMC OIP Forum was very upbeat this year and now we know why. It wasn’t long ago that some media outlets and a competitor said 7nm would not be a popular node because it is too expensive blah blah blah. People inside the fabless semiconductor ecosystem however know otherwise. As I have said before, 7nm will be another strong node for TSMC, déjà vu of 28nm. The difference being that there will not be cloned 7nm processes like 28nm so TSMC market share and margins will remain strong, my opinion.

Let’s take a look at the Q3 2018 earnings call transcript and see what else we can learn:

Now let's take a look at revenue by technology. 7-nanometer process technology contributed 11% of total wafer revenue in the third quarter. 10-nanometer accounted for 6%, while the combined revenue from the 16- and 20-nanometer accounted for 25%. Advanced technologies, defined as 28-nanometer and more advanced technologies, accounted for 61% of the total wafer revenue.

Apple is > 17% of Q3 revenue if you include 20nm (iPhone 6) and 16nm (iPhone 6+ and iPhone 7) legacy products.

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