Since the battle between China and the United States chips sounded, many chip-related companies have also been forced to make a "choice of two" choice, unexpectedly, ASML, TSMC, Nvidia and other chip giants have actively or passively chosen the US chip camp. As the hegemon in the field of science and technology, because the United States has mastered a lot of underlying core technologies, this also leads to chip companies having to look at the face of the United States, but becoming the "chess piece" of the United States to suppress China's core does not mean that these companies are "their own people", as long as it involves the issue of interests, the so-called "ally" relationship is self-defeating and vulnerable!
Among them, TSMC is "iron-hearted" to support American chips, not only no longer helping Huawei to OEM chips, but also spending $40 billion to build a factory in the United States. And TSMC's founder Zhang Zhongmou has also repeatedly choked Chinese chip companies - "You will never be able to build high-end chips", "Our technology is at least 10 years ahead of the mainland" and so on.
TSMC lost the "bet", and at the beginning of 2024, TSMC suffered a heavy blow, and the trend of things became clearer and clearer! The first news is that TSMC has stopped the 2024 lithography machine procurement plan. In the second news, TSMC CEO Liu Deyin announced his retirement and suggested that Wei Zhejia take over.
You know, TSMC is a major shareholder and a major customer of ASML, most of the EUV lithography machines produced by ASML every year are pocketed by TSMC, according to the 2024 procurement plan, TSMC will continue to purchase 10 EUV lithography machines, but I didn't expect that at the beginning of 2024, TSMC stopped this plan, and behind this decision also revealed a lot of information.
To be sure, TSMC's orders for advanced chips have decreased and there is no need for so many EUV lithography machines. After being unable to continue to OEM for Chinese enterprises such as Huawei, TSMC's customers are mainly concentrated in North American companies, which leads to TSMC's order volume is very limited, and it is difficult to open up new customers, but affected by the "cold winter" of the semiconductor industry, TSMC's advanced chip orders have decreased, and the market share of mature chips has been squeezed by mainland companies such as SMIC, which is in a difficult situation.
According to the sales data in November 2023, TSMC's revenue has declined sharply, down 15.3% month-on-month, and the utilization rate of TSMC's advanced process production line has plummeted by more than 30%.
As for Liu Deyin's retirement, it has a lot to do with TSMC's plan to build a factory in the United States. After drawing a clear line with Huawei, Liu Deyin once said in a high-profile manner that the loss of Huawei will not affect TSMC's revenue, and going to the United States to build a factory can help TSMC create more revenue. But Liu Deyin made a mistake, in addition to facing higher costs to build a factory in the United States, there was also a shortage of water, electricity, and labor, and the subsidies promised by the United States were also empty, and the core technology was also facing the risk of being "robbed", which was completely lifting a stone to shoot himself in the foot.
There is no doubt that Liu Deyin chose to retire at this time, and he was suspected of wanting to get rid of this "mess", and he may also be responsible for his own mistakes. Although Wei Zhejia's prediction is still relatively accurate, he saw the development potential of mature process chips in advance, but it is obvious that it is too late, and mainland chip companies such as SMIC have already completed the layout and have not left TSMC a chance.
Looking back, TSMC is bent on getting the support of the old United States, but it has become "cannon fodder", this behavior of "elbows turning out" will eventually be abandoned by the Chinese mainland market, TSMC should wake up!