TSMC only had one customer for its 3nm ‘N3B’ process, which was Apple, but in 2024, a new report states that the semiconductor manufacturer is expected to witness a double-digit increase in revenue for this category as it aims to add more partners for its long-supported cutting-edge node. With this growth, the company’s 3nm wafer production is also said to reach 100,000 monthly units by the end of next year.

Qualcomm, MediaTek, Apple, and others will reportedly adopt TSMC’s new 3nm ‘N3E’ process, contributing to the manufacturer’s revenue

Alongside mass producing wafers to be used by various chipset makers, China Times reports that TSMC’s 3nm technology will also be used in other applications, ranging from NVIDIA GPUs to AI chips developed by giants like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and others. Currently, the report states that TSMC’s 3nm capacity is hitting between 60,000-70,000 wafers per month, but that figure is expected to witness a hefty jump by the end of 2024, reaching 100,000 monthly units.

With this manufacturing process expected to be supported for a long time, with different variations being used by TSMC’s partners, the 3nm process could account for 10 percent of the entire revenue for 2024, up from 5 percent this year. In fact, it is estimated that strong A17 Pro and M3 chip orders from Apple will generate $3.1 billion in revenuefor the Taiwanese firm in 2023 alone.

With Qualcomm and MediaTek expected to gravitate to the N3E process next year for their flagship mobile SoCs, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and Dimensity 9400, respectively, an even higher revenue boost should be expected. One of the reasons why Apple was only exclusively placing orders with TSMC for its 3nm ‘N3B’ node was the high wafer cost and low yields. With each wafer rumored to cost $20,000 and yields reportedly at 55 percent, only an entity as large as Apple can bear this financial hammering.

According to an earlier report, the tape-out process alone for the recently launched M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max cost Apple $1 billion, indicating that companies such as Qualcomm and MediaTek cannot bear this kind of expenditure, so they preferred to wait while giving Apple the advantage for a whole year. However, that generational gap will not last long as more competitors aim to produce their best silicon for next year, meaning that it will be an exciting 2024.

News Source: China Times