Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last quarter consolidated its leadership position after its share of the global foundry market topped 60 percent, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday.
The contract chipmaker’s market share was 58.5 percent in the final quarter of last year, the Taipei-based researcher said in a report.
TSMC’s revenue fell 16.2 percent sequentially during the January-to-March period to US$16.74 billion, as flagging demand for smartphones and notebook computers reduced utilization of its advanced 7-nanometer, 5-nanometer and 4-nanometer node technologies, TrendForce said.
Photo: Cheng I-Hwa/Bloomberg
TSMC would likely see a slower decline in revenue this quarter, it said.
Samsung Electronics Co, the second-biggest foundry service provider, saw its revenue plummet 36.1 percent quarterly to US$3.45 billion, due to lower utilization of its 8-inch and 12-inch fabs, TrendForce said.
The South Korean company is expected to report the first revenue contribution from its 3-nanometer technology this quarter, the researcher said.
GlobalFoundries Inc ranked third, replacing United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), as it benefited from rising orders for chips used in vehicles and industrial devices, as well as the defense sector and government agencies in the US.
GlobalFoundries has said revenue last quarter fell 12.4 percent quarterly to US$1.84 billion.
The company is expected to report a flat second quarter on the back of steady demand for chips used in aerospace, Internet of Things applications and vehicles, TrendForce said.
UMC’s revenue fell 17.6 percent last quarter from the previous quarter, due to weak demand for products made using its 28-nanometer, 22-nanometer and 40-nanometer technologies.
The chipmaker is also expected to see flat revenue this quarter or a slight increase from the previous quarter, TrendForce said.
UMC’s utilization rate of its 8-inch fabs is likely to fall below 60 percent this quarter, as customers scaled back orders for power management chips and microcontrollers, while the utilization rate of its 12-inch fabs could reach 80 percent on the back of rush orders for 28-nanometer chips used in TVs, the report said.
Taiwanese foundries Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) and Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) fell to eight and ninth place respectively with regards to their global market share, due to sluggish demand for chips used in consumer electronics, TrendForce said.
Overall, the world’s top 10 foundry companies would likely post smaller revenue declines this quarter, as customers have started rebuilding inventory, albeit cautiously, the researcher said.
However, end-market demand remained weak and the companies’ factory utilization would be supported solely by rush orders for Wi-Fi chips and touch-and-display chips, it said.
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US