Thursday, January 2nd 2020
AMD to Outpace Apple as TSMC's Biggest 7nm Customer in 2020
AMD in the second half of 2020 could outpace Apple as the biggest foundry customer of TSMC for its 7 nm silicon fabrication nodes (DUV and EUV combined). There are two key factors contributing to this: AMD significantly increasing its orders for the year; and Apple transitioning to TSMC's 5 nm node for its A14 SoC, freeing up some 7 nm allocation, which AMD grabbed. AMD is currently tapping into 7 nm DUV for its "Zen 2" chiplet, "Navi 10," and "Navi 14" GPU dies. The company could continue to order 7 nm DUV until these products reach EOL; while also introducing the new "Renoir" APU die on the process. The foundry's new 7 nm+ (EUV) node will be utilized for "Zen 3" chiplets and "Navi 2#" GPU dies in 2020.
Currently, the top-5 customers for TSMC 7 nm are Apple, HiSilicon, Qualcomm, AMD, and MediaTek. Barring AMD, the others in the top-5 build mobile SoCs or 4G/5G modem chips on the node. AMD is expected to top the list as it scales up orders with TSMC. In the first half of 2020, TSMC's monthly output for 7 nm is expected to grow to 110,000 wafers per month (wpm). Apple's migration to 5 nm in 2H-2020, coupled with capacity-addition could take TSMC's 7 nm output to 140,000 wpm. AMD has reportedly booked the entire capacity-addition for 30,000 wpm, taking its allocation up to 21% in 2H-2020. Qualcomm is switching to Samsung for its next-generation SoCs and modems designed for 7 nm EUV. NVIDIA, too, is expected to built its next-gen 7 nm EUV GPUs on Samsung instead of TSMC. These moves by big players could free up significant foundry allocation at TSMC for AMD's volumes to grow in 2020.
Sources:
Apple Daily, chiakokhua aka Retired Engineer (Twitter), WCCFTech
Currently, the top-5 customers for TSMC 7 nm are Apple, HiSilicon, Qualcomm, AMD, and MediaTek. Barring AMD, the others in the top-5 build mobile SoCs or 4G/5G modem chips on the node. AMD is expected to top the list as it scales up orders with TSMC. In the first half of 2020, TSMC's monthly output for 7 nm is expected to grow to 110,000 wafers per month (wpm). Apple's migration to 5 nm in 2H-2020, coupled with capacity-addition could take TSMC's 7 nm output to 140,000 wpm. AMD has reportedly booked the entire capacity-addition for 30,000 wpm, taking its allocation up to 21% in 2H-2020. Qualcomm is switching to Samsung for its next-generation SoCs and modems designed for 7 nm EUV. NVIDIA, too, is expected to built its next-gen 7 nm EUV GPUs on Samsung instead of TSMC. These moves by big players could free up significant foundry allocation at TSMC for AMD's volumes to grow in 2020.
25 Comments on AMD to Outpace Apple as TSMC's Biggest 7nm Customer in 2020
navi for consoles
this whole things smells bad for gpu prices though.
nvidia is gonna hit with 7nm when tsmc will have their hands full with other amd stuff that they very much proritize
Soon when Mobile market start to shift towards AMD then N7 orders will increase, also looks like APPLE is considering AMD's APU's so AMD will be in very good position to ask for more capacity, since the wafflers are made for APPLE, and AMD and APPLE are their biggest customers combined.
That's the point.
Competition for 7nm ampere is gonna be really scarce for quite some time.
Huawei's latest motherboard opens to door for desktops powered by ARM processors
in a short while they won't be a small player anymore.
It's not about AMD growing significantly. It's about other clients moving to newer node or to another supplier.
Now with 7nm EUV coming, the pressure on TSMC will of course increase, but whatever the production distribution will be, that's all settled far ahead in wafer supply agreements. And companies like Apple, MediaTek etc. will be using the low power nodes.
I realize that the article basically states that, but the headline is misleading in my opinion.
So, AMD will be the biggest 7nm customer in 2020. Because Apple is going to be using 5nm at TSMC.
This is like reporting on who the biggest 16nm customer at TSMC is. Who cares?