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Chipmaker TSMC Reportedly Informs Apple of Further Price Hikes
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Apple is TSMC's #1 customer - you really think they do not have long-term supply agreements incl pricing in place?
Think again
They do but we don’t know what the terms are.
There could be something in there that allows TSMC to somehow increase prices.
Agree with what you're saying. But realistically, Samsung Foundry looks to be the only serious alternative out there with there 2nm GAA node architecture.
TSMC being more expensive is still better than Intel not hitting power consumption/efficiency targets.
true, don't know any detail but also keep in mind that Apple is the supply chain expert ...
Apple and TSMC are partnering on process development, TSMC can't do that on their own so they are "9n bed" together so to speak, it is a mutual relationship and has been for many years now, you don't surprise your partner ...
At least part of the problem is the entire world and everything we use has these high tech chips in them. In simple terms the production of such chips has not expanded at the same pace the need for them has.
For known tech, yeah probably.
For new tech (smaller nanometer scale) it'll be too much of an unknown to be able to price it.
The article does say "unusually high capital expenditure for the new node".
Apple probably gets first refusal but can lock down the price for the volumes it knows it can ship.
Tomorrow's 2nm A/M chips will be the chip in your Apple TV in 7 years time.
Yeah you’re right. Would have liked to have been a fly on the wall to see how these discussions went down!
I suppose $280 is for the whole mobile device, not just the chip. That would be too big a jump!
I also suppose TSMC gets paid in dollars, so an increased price is to be expected with inflation.
More and more glad I went ahead and got this 17 Pro Max. Gonna be an interesting few years ahead and I can't possibly imagine needing more than this beast for a while.
Time for Apple to start making there own chips and cutting out TSMC .
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The cost to develop the N2 has been the highest in history at nearly $800 million. The wafer is expected to cost an eye watering $30,000 due to its complexity.
For reference, the 1.4 / 1.6 nm node is expected to cost $45,000+ per wafer.
Really doesn’t have much to do with competition, see what I wrote above. The 3rd generation of the N2 node should be better optimized and provide significant better yields and lower costs (plus significant better performance). Because they are becoming so expensive to produce and manufacture, the N2 will likely be with us until 2030 (not without significant advancements) and 1.4 nm / 14A possibly even longer with those platforms costing significantly more.
However, the products those future platforms will allow are the thing of dreams. We will see mind blowing tech by the early 2030s with a bigger technical leap than we have seen in the last 15 years.
Do you have any evidence of any sort for this bold statement? If so, I would love to know what you are anticipating.
Vendor lock-in is a long term disaster as well. Remember when Intel was the sole Apple supplier? Stuck at 14 nm for a long time. How USA lost the fab crown is still unbelievable.
They can but the will not. Got to keep that profit margin up. As long as it will not affect sales, Apple will just pass increases in BOM on to the consumer.