TSMC Grows Share of Foundry Business

Repercussions of Samsung's burning batteries

Alan Patterson, EETimes
10/13/2016 09:38 AM EDT

TAIPEI — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) increased its share of the foundry business to 55 percent this year on better than expected demand for smartphones during the third quarter.

“In the third quarter, we gained market share across most technology nodes,” according to TSMC Co-CEO Mark Liu, speaking at a Taipei event to announce the company’s quarterly results.

TSMC, which counts Apple as its largest buyer, said that sales growth was driven by its mobile customer’s new product launch. TSMC makes the A10 processor for Apple’s latest smartphone, the iPhone 7 Plus, introduced in September.

In the third quarter, TSMC’s sales of chips made with its most advanced 16nm/20nm process technology increased to 31 percent of overall revenue from 23 percent during the second quarter. The quarter marks the first time for 16nm/20nm to account for the largest portion of its overall revenue.

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