Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the largest foundry in the world. The firm has close to 500 customers including three big tech names at the top of the list. No points will be awarded if you can tell us which company is TSMC’s number one customer. That’s because the answer is so obvious, especially if you’re a loyal PhoneArena reader since we’ve mentioned it quite often.
After Apple, can you name TSMC’s second and third largest customers? Hint: Huawei is no longer among them!
TSMC builds the powerful M1 chip for Apple containing 16 billion transistors
Considering that Apple is focused on using 5nm components and might switch to 3nm for next year’s A16 Bionic for the iPhone 14 series, we can tell you that AMD is TSMC’s largest 7nm client. AMD is expected to continue ranking as TSMC’s second-largest customer throughout the remainder of this year.
Qualcomm is rumored to return Snapdragon chip production to TSMC with the Snapdragon 898+ expected in the second half of 2022
In third place is MediaTek. First announced in 2019, the chip designer’s Dimensity 5G components roll off of TSMC’s assembly line using the 7nm process. The Dimensity 2000 5G sequel is expected to start shipping during the first quarter of 2022. Not only will it use ARM’s V9 architecture, it also will be manufactured using TSMC’s 4nm process node.
A change is rumored to take place in the second half of next year when the Snapdragon chipsets will supposedly make their return to TSMC with the release of the Snapdragon 898+. This component will reportedly be produced using TSMC’s 4nm process node.
Earlier this year, we passed along the word of industry analysts who say that the world is too reliant on TSMC. As research firm Capital Economics noted, depending on Taiwan for chips “poses a threat to the global economy.” Just consider that the research firm says that 92% of the most cutting-edge chips in the world come from TSMC with South Korea’s Samsung Foundry responsible for the rest.
