This week TSMC has disclosed its full quarterly monetary outcomes for Q1 2021. In these outcomes the corporate typically explains the place the income demand is for its applied sciences, and the monetary cut up the demand brings. This quantity shouldn’t be correlated to wafer manufacturing (though TSMC supplies an total quantity too), on condition that smaller course of nodes have a per-wafer premium, nevertheless it does point out the place the demand is out there proper now. As maybe to be anticipated, 7nm takes high billing, nonetheless a few fascinating numbers come out of the information.
The headline numbers from TSMC’s monetary disclosures are that the corporate made $12.92 billion USD internet income in Q1 2021, up 1.9% from quarter-to-quarter and up 25% year-on-year. This interprets to a 52.4% gross margin, which is down 1.6% Q-on-Q and up 0.6% YoY. TSMC shipped 3.36 million wafers this quarter (primarily based on 12-inch equal wafers, as a result of some manufacturing is 8-inch), or about 1.12 million monthly, 8% extra monthly than the 2020 common.
This quarter TSMC has hit report wafer manufacturing, some 50% increased than its current Q1 2019 low level. In Q1 2019, TSMC had low demand for high-end smartphones, low buyer demand on account of oversupply/stock digestion, and Q1 is often decrease seasonally anyway. But as we will see from the historic 5-year graph, conventional manufacturing for TSMC has been round 2.5-2.7m wafers per quarter.
It is just lately that TSMC is pushing out over 3m wafers per quarter, indicating a great shift in demand as we’re seeing of late. This is buoyed by TSMC’s latest Fab 18 facility which went into 5nm threat manufacturing in Q2 2019, and at full manufacturing is anticipated to fabricate 1 million to 1.2 million 12-inch wafers per yr.
This uptick in wafer shipments has had a internet constructive in internet income as properly.
We see the same dip in income as we did with wafers in Q1 2019, however the current highs from Q3 2020 onwards are set to proceed, with TSMC making $12.92 billion USD for Q1 2021 with a 52.4% gross margin. TSMC signifies that the decrease gross margin was partly all the way down to a decrease degree of utilization in its fabs (possible for upgrades/repairs than lack of demand), in addition to an unfavourable alternate fee. For perspective, TSMC holds $13.42 billion USD in internet money reserves, down from This fall on account of a rise in short-term loans and issuance of company bonds, however has a money place of $23.47 billion USD.
As for the place the income comes from, for the second straight quarter, in Q1 2021 7nm and 5nm mixed accounted for nearly 50% of the company-wide income. 7nm truly elevated its income share, whereas 5nm income diminished.
7nm accounts for 35% of all income, with 5nm now at 14%. This might sound odd, nonetheless TSMC has only a few clients with 5nm designs, however lots for 7nm, suggesting that TSMC is ready to have clients bid in opposition to one another (together with growing wafer output). For the previous couple of quarters, experiences about TSMC’s 7nm lead time for merchandise, from order to manufacturing to cargo, have been extending as a result of elevated demand. Note that TSMC’s most superior packaging applied sciences, equivalent to CoWoS, are sometimes used along side 7nm or 16nm silicon, so these revenues are possible in these respective segments as properly.
Recently TSMC has said that it plans to spend $100B over the following three years to extend capability modern capability, which incorporates the $25B-$28B it had already deliberate for 2021, with $12B of that going onto a manufacturing unit in Arizona. To put that in perspective, TSMC’s Fab 15 which at the moment produces 12-inch wafers on 7nm, price $9.Three billion in 2010, and has the capability for ~100,000 wafer begins monthly.
Revenue from 16nm is reducing, now going beneath 15% for a few quarters, and…
