Apple is TSMC's most important partner, there is no one, every year will basically eat its latest process of production, this year 3nm will naturally be no exception. According to media reports in Taiwan Province, Apple once again took the initiative in negotiations with TSMC, demanding to reduce the cost of advanced process foundry next year, and the latter agreed to reduce the foundry price by about 25%.
The report pointed out that Apple is the only customer of TSMC's 3nm process this year, which is not only the first to monopolize the advanced process, but also undertakes the problem of running-in new processes and insufficient yield. In this case, Apple proposed to TSMC to reduce the price, hoping to start the production of 3nm process process from next year to adjust the low cost, TSMC considered agreeing to Apple's request, decided to reduce the price next year by about 1/4, that is, from the original 20,000 US dollars (about 144,000 yuan) to 16,000 US dollars (about 115,000 yuan), this cost is still much higher than the 4nm process process, after all, it is the world's most advanced foundry.
In fact, TSMC chip foundry prices are never fixed, and there will be many minor adjustments every year, which may be affected by comprehensive reasons such as raw materials, electricity, water sources, and labor. It's just that every adjustment of TSMC is a "price increase", and there are very few price cuts, and now Apple has the ability to persuade TSMC to reduce costs, indicating that its position in the industry is unique, and other manufacturers are not worthy of bargaining with TSMC.
Even if TSMC lowers the foundry price, industry insiders analyze that it still has great profit margins, after all, its advanced technology does not have any competitors in the industry, and manufacturers such as Samsung and Intel are not afraid. For example, last year Samsung has taken the lead in announcing that it is ahead of TSMC, the world's first to achieve mass production of 3nm process, but for most of the past half a year, there has not been a large customer to the door, because Samsung foundry has left too many negative impressions on the outside world, not only consumers, partners are deeply skeptical of Samsung's strength, no one is willing to take the initiative to cooperate with it.
In the absence of competitors, TSMC can price its own advanced process, and has now announced in advance that the 2nm process foundry price is 25,000 US dollars (about 180,000 yuan), which is about 1/4 higher than the 3nm process cost. For partners, the cost of 180,000 yuan is not too expensive, some people squeeze their heads and ask TSMC foundry can not be ranked, Apple once again wrapped the first batch of production capacity, other manufacturers can only wait in line behind Apple.
According to the previous industry insiders, Apple ate TSMC's first batch of 3nm process capacity, which was used to produce A17 Bionic processors and M3 processors. At the same time, due to the yield rate, performance, power consumption and other comprehensive factors, TSMC 3nm is also divided into N3B, N3E, N3P, N3X, N3S and other different nodes, each node specific price is also different, Apple will use different processes on different positioning products according to demand, and even iPhone15 series mobile phones may be "lottery", Apple will transfer all costs to the consumer side.
Friends, are you looking forward to the iPhone 15 series equipped with the A17 Bionic processor? #夏日生活打卡季#