Being the world's largest contract chipmaker has its advantages for TSMC when it comes to negotiations with suppliers, as it naturally buys far more than others. However, it also has its difficulties because its requirements are dramatically larger than those of other foundries, and when they grow further, it gets exceedingly hard to source what it needs. Especially when its requirements increase nearly 2X in less than a year.
TSMC has nearly doubled its projected requirements for semiconductor production equipment since the end of last year as the foundry expands manufacturing capacity to address surging demand from the AI sector, said Cliff Hou, TSMC's deputy co-chief operating officer, during a fireside chat at Semicon Taiwan, reports FocusTaiwan. The world's largest foundry admits that it cannot meet all demand from all customers, though it is trying to catch up, according to Bloomberg.
