Steady as she goes. That was the key message from TSMC’s Q4 2023 earnings call today, despite a 1.5% drop in revenue compared to the same period in 2022.
The company’s three nanometer production ramp is strong, and development of its two-nanometer technology is proceeding smoothly towards its targeted launch of volume production in 2025. The expansion of TSMC’s global manufacturing footprint in the US, Germany, and Japan also continues to move ahead. The most encouraging progress has been made at the company’s Kumamoto site in southwestern Japan where plans for a second 6-nanometer facility have been announced.
In addition to manufacturing the most advanced smartphone chips for Apple and Qualcomm, TSMC also produces that latest GPUs from Nvidia and AMD that are being deployed in cloud service provider and enterprise data centres to power demanding generative AI workloads and applications.
TSMC executives, including the retiring Chairman Mark Liu, were notably bullish about the potential of generative AI, with one remarking that currently we are seeing just the tip of the iceberg. It is no surprise, therefore that they see continued strong demand for HPC (high performance computing) silicon devices and CoWoS (chip-on-wafer-on-substrate) advanced packaging technology this year and beyond.
As for the broader PC and smartphone markets, company executives were much more circumspect given the uncertain geopolitical and economic winds buffeting the globe and negative consumer sentiment.
Despite limited PC and smartphone visibility, TSMC expects to achieve revenue growth of over 20% in 2024, with capital spending budgeted at between US$28 billion and US$32 billion to fund its domestic and global expansion plans. Even as different segments of the technology industry experience their ups and downs, TSMC keeps steaming ahead in a clear and consistent direction.
Long time technology industry fan here in Taiwan.
