Bad news for Intel, and same thing happens in the server segment.

Coronavirus tripled AMD market share speed increase and it can reach 25% in September already (with >50% in the most competitive cloud and hosting contracts).

TSMC has kicked off its 2nm process R&D, and is progressing in research and exploratory studies for nodes beyond 2nm, the foundry has diclosed in its annual report to shareholders.

Huawei paid to TSMC more than $5,1 billions for mostly smartphone chips. Only Apple paid more to chipmaker ($8,24).

Hence problems of smartphone makers can lead to huge issues of TSMC, as chipmaker now inject huge profits it get from premium smartphone to finance expensive equipment (due to total monopoly profits on it also are astronomical).

Destruction of TSMC leadership can be very good to market.

From Samsung PR

In the second half, to address current uncertainties, the Foundry Business will focus on diversifying applications beyond mobile to include areas such as consumer and computing applications. It will also continue investing in advanced processes for the future and will start mass-producing 5nm products this year and focus on the development of GAA 3 nm process.

Sales of smartphones in the China market slumped by 51.9% sequentially and 38.9% on year to their lowest quarterly levels of recent years in the first quarter of 2020 due to the impacts of coronavirus pandemic and seasonality,

Up to 60% of all TSMC and similar firms expenses had been financed from buyers of top smartphones.

Again on Moore law

Chiplets effectively bypass Moore's Law by replacing a single silicon die with multiple smaller dice that work together in a unified packaged solution. This approach provides much more silicon to add transistors compared to a monolithic microchip. As a result, chiplets are expected to allow a return to the two-year doubling cycle that has underpinned the economics of the semiconductor business since 1965.

"When semiconductor pioneer Gordon Moore first published his theory about semiconductor advancement, he provided a key forecasting benchmark that set a development cycle for the entire tech industry," said Tom Hackenberg, principal analyst, embedded processors, Omdia. "From software developers, to system designers, to tech investors, everyone for decades counted on the swift two-year schedule defined by Moore's Law. With the arrival of chiplets, the semiconductor business and those that depend upon it now have the opportunity to return to the customary rate of progress that has driven so much economic value for the overall tech industry."

Chiplets are experiencing adoption in more advanced and highly integrated semiconductor devices, i.e., microprocessors (MPU), system-on-chip (SoC) devices, graphics processing units (GPU) and programmable logic devices (PLD). The MPU segment represents the largest single market for chiplets among different microchip product types. The global market with chiplet-enabled MPUs is expected to expand to US$2.4 billion in 2024, up from US$452 million in 2018, according to Omdia.

"To remain competitive, MPU makers must always stick to the cutting edge of semiconductor manufacturing technologies," Hackenberg said. "These companies have the most to lose from the slowdown in Moore's Law. Because of this, these companies are among the earliest adopters of chiplets and are likely to be the primary contributors to chiplet standardization efforts."

MPU suppliers such as Intel and AMD are the early innovators building proprietary advanced packaging chiplets. Intel is also a member of the Open Compute Project, Open Domain-Specific Architecture (OCP ODSA) foundation, which is promoting the development of standards and technologies that are helping to enable advanced packaging strategies.

With the early adoption in MPUs, the computing segment is expected to be the dominant application market for chiplets through 2024, Omdia noted. Computing will account for 96% of revenue in 2020 and 92% by 2024.

Over the longer term, Omdia expects chiplet revenue to continue to expand and reach US$57 billion in revenue by 2035. Much of this growth will be driven by chiplets that serve as heterogenous processors, i.e., chips that combine different processing elements, such as applications processors that integrate graphics, security engines, artificial intelligence (AI) acceleration, low-power internet of things (IoT) controllers and more.

"Chiplets may not single-handedly save Moore's Law, but they do represent an innovative, emerging approach that help advance new packaging technologies, new design strategies and new materials," Hackenberg said. "This exciting new approach also may enable a more competitive landscape with diverse contributors. Chiplets will bolster the cadence Moore conveyed in his original 1965 article. The import of that original statement was not really about how microprocessors grow in performance. Rather, it was about establishing an industry guideline for a cadence that system designers, software developers and investors could count on to drive the innovation engine. This is the aspect of Moore's Law that will live on."

Too much hope for chiplets. They hope that issues with new processes could be hidden, no they won't.

Wall Street Journal sources say the White House is talking to Intel and TSMC about setting up US chip factories. While Intel already has a US presence, its discussions revolve creating a foundry that other companies could use for their products.

In the time of dangerous Chinese manufacturers rise (now only equipment control limit this rise) Wall Street Journal sources say the White House is talking to Intel and TSMC about setting up US chip factories. While Intel already has a US presence, its discussions revolve creating a foundry that other companies could use for their products.

This can actually put big stick in both TSMC and Intel front wheels, as they now will be forced to move best factories and make new ones in mostly in US, this means 3-4 years delay that can become fatal.

Hygon Dhyana (threadripper 1st gen sold to CHinese) will move to 7nm soon. Samsung or TSMC or both will make them.

Big danger here is that it won't AMD team who will do redesign for completely new process, but new team of more than 500 Chinese engineers.

AMD seems to make huge error providing all documentation and signing on terms where they can't stop it now.

CPU can jump to 32 cores even. But still will be using same mount.

Compatibility to older x399 chipset can be also in Chinese plans as they can sell them internationally in this case.

TSMC and surprise strange news on US plant

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co plans to build an advanced chip factory in Arizona. The plant would make 5-nanometer transistor chips for TSMC.

TSMC’s board made the decision to build the plant earlier this week at a meeting in Taiwan and may officially announced the plans as early as Friday.

The plans call for the factory to begin producing the chips by the end of 2023.

This fully contradicts all other reports.

But it can be special plot made by Apple and TSMC to explain low volume of 5nm production later this year and next year, as well as very big delays with further processes.

Something is happening with TSMC, as it lost around 30% of income in last months. Most probably we see now attempt of US to transfer newly printed money directly to most valuable asset they have.

Tragedy of TSMC

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world biggest contract chipmaker, has halted new orders from Huawei Technologies in response to tighter U.S. export controls aimed at further limiting the Chinese company's access to crucial chip supplies.

Huawei is TSMC's second-largest client only after Apple, accounting for 15-20% of its annual revenue. Huawei also accounted for up to 20% of SMIC's revenue, according to a Bernstein Research estimate.

According to the document posted online by the U.S. Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security, chip shipments bound for Huawei that went into production before May 15 and will ship before midnight Sept. 14 are not subject to the new rule. A license will be required for all other shipments.

Impact of this decision will be unprecidented.

It can be also only measure that could save Intel and buy 1-2 more years by keeping TSMC from moving forward.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES® (GF®), the world's leading specialty foundry and the leading U.S. pure-play manufacturer of semiconductors, today announced plans to implement export control security measures at its most advanced manufacturing facility, Fab 8, in Malta, New York. GF will bring its Fab 8 facility into compliance with both the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) standards and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), making the company the most advanced ITAR foundry in the country. By taking this significant step, GF deepens its partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the U.S. defense industrial base, and further supports ongoing development of new assurance approaches in support of national security objectives.

These new control assurances, which will go into effect later this year, will make confidentiality and integrity protections available for defense-related applications, devices or components manufactured at GF’s Fab 8 facility. To date, GF has invested over $13 billion in Fab 8 and this is a significant step to serve the U.S. government and its technology needs for decades.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer commented, “I have always been a strong believer that the most secure way to manufacture semiconductor chips is to do so here in the U.S. I have also been a champion of GLOBALFOUNDRIES and applaud their efforts to provide ITAR and EAR compliant manufacturing to the U.S. Government. In partnership with GF, New York State leads the nation in secure semiconductor manufacturing.”

Company can have US military as their main clients within 2 years.

TSMC story can also explain why all of the sudden GF dropped their own 7nm process and AMD had been ordered to use TSMC.

China goal now is to use any means, dirty tricks and open military force to destroy US - TSMC deal and also find weak spots in other US mased manufacturers logistics.