The record is broken! It is rumored that TSMC will increase its price by 25% in April!

On March 29, according to Taiwanese media reports, it was recently reported that TSMC would increase the foundry price of 12-inch wafers. TSMC stated that it will start to increase the price in 4 months of this year. Each wafer will increase by about US$400, an increase of 25%, and it will gradually increase. Seasonal adjustments will help TSMC's overall offer to hit a record high!

Regarding related rumors, TSMC stated that TSMC is committed to providing customer value and does not comment on price issues.

An IC design industry who has been with TSMC for many years pointed out that TSMC’s advanced process technology is leading, and it has always had pricing advantages. Previously, TSMC executives have repeatedly emphasized that it is a long-term partnership with customers and will not increase prices arbitrarily. However, the foundry capacity is indeed tight at this stage, and it is estimated that TSMC will also have relevant strategies to respond.

The industry believes that TSMC’s increase of some customers’ quotations should be mostly short-term or new customers. For example, mining-related orders for non-mainstream applications mainly take into account the many uncertain factors in the mining business model, and are subject to currency or electricity policies of various countries, which are short-term. Opportunity wealth, so TSMC will naturally limit and use price control to control uncertain risks.

According to the mass production technology blueprints of various foundries, TSMC's advanced process mass production progress has taken the lead. Among them, 5nm mass production time is about 6 months ahead of Samsung. Trial production of 4nm will begin this year, and mass production of 3nm is planned for 2022.

Foundry prices have risen again, which also indicates that the supply of semiconductor raw materials this year will still be difficult. This is not good news for the downstream supply chain.