Driven by orders such as AI chips, TSMC‘s 5nm and 4nm capacity utilization began to rise

Source: TechWeb Author: Hai Lan

    On February 23, according to foreign media reports, under the background of declining demand for consumer electronics products and a significant reduction in demand for chips, chip manufacturers are facing challenges, especially for storage chip manufacturers.

    The chip manufacturers facing challenges, including TSMC, have predicted that the revenue in the first quarter of this year will decline year-on-year and month-on-month, which is expected to be $167 (IT Home Note: currently about 1152 yuan) - $17.5 billion (IT Home Note: currently about 120.75 billion yuan) 17. At the end of last year, it was also reported that the overall capacity utilization rate of TSMC would drop to 80% in the first half of this year, and the capacity utilization rate of 7nm and 6nm processes would decline the most. The capacity utilization rate of 5nm and 4nm processes is also expected to decline from January.

    As for the capacity utilization rate of TSMC‘s 5nm and 4nm processes, some insiders said that it had begun to rise recently, mainly due to the strong promotion of orders for AI chips and server processors with short delivery time.

    The 5nm and 4nm process technology has accounted for a considerable proportion of TSMC‘s revenue, and has exceeded 7nm for two consecutive quarters, becoming the largest revenue source of TSMC. The recovery of capacity utilization of these two processes with high OEM prices will also promote the revenue of TSMC.

    The AI chips and server processors that promote TSMC‘s 5nm and 4nm process capacity utilization recovery may be related to AI chat robots such as ChatGPT, which have been on fire in recent years. Training related AI chat robots and maintaining the operation of related services need the support of servers and related chips.