These are all just market rumours and speculation as usual. TSMC is ASML's biggest customer and has more than 50% of the global installed base of EUV machines. They always planned to take a high NA machine as early as possible for R&D purposes, they're just not buying in volume yet that's all. The timing and/or cost does not work for their current nodes up to A16. The next full node shrink, which is due in 2028 I think, may use high NA but TSMC haven't decided yet.
TSMC wafer pricing
- Thread starter Silenti
- Start date
TSMC's 3nm Supply Runs Short Amid Huge AI Demand: NVIDIA, Apple, AMD, Qualcomm Consider Raising Chip Prices
NVIDIA, Apple, AMD & Qualcomm are now opting for price hikes for their in-demand AI hardware as TSMC's 3nm supply becomes more scarce.
wccftech.com
Well Nvidia is widely speculated to move to 3nm next year for Blackwell's evolution. This article is talking about the situation going forward, not just right now. Not saying it's a credible story, necessarily. Plausible, though.
The article seems fairly plausible. Currently only Apple and Intel are ramping 3nm in volume, but by the end of this year/next year we will see multiple other product ramps including Apple's A18 SoC(s), M4 & derivatives ; AMD Turin Dense, Strix Halo, MI350; Qualcomm and Mediatek mobile SoCs, and perhaps a few others but it seems clear that TSMC's 3nm is in high demand. Nvidia has surely prebooked capacity for Rubin but it does have sufficient competition for capacity for the foreseeable future.
That’s going to benefit TSMCs customers with the deepest pockets and further squeeze anyone running on low margins. Nvidia and Apple are probably unphased and maybe even welcome the higher prices that will put pressure on the competition.
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