By Alan Patterson, EETimes (October 20, 2020)
TAIPEI — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) expects the main driver of its growth in the next several years to be high-performance computing (HPC), overtaking its current smartphone business.
The world’s biggest chip foundry said its technology leadership during the third quarter this year helped it capture 5G and HPC orders that will increase company growth by about 30% in 2020, leading overall gains in the semiconductor industry.
The company made those predictions in spite of losing sales to China’s Huawei, which has been blacklisted by the US government in the tech war between the world’s two biggest economies. TSMC said its sales to Huawei, in 2020 its second-largest customer after Apple, will drop to zero in the fourth quarter this year in compliance with US regulations. The company has apparently had no trouble compensating for the loss of Huawei’s business, however; TSMC has had difficulty meeting customer demand as capacity utilization nears full loading.