A report citing sources at various IC design houses suggests TSMC is planning price rises for its chip fabs as soon as January 2024. Taiwan’s DigiTimes says that TSMC has been preparing customers for price hikes for quite some time and, depending on factors like order volume, it intends to push prices of advanced process output up between 3 and 6%. These rises would be in addition to the 10 to 20% increase in quotes for 2022, according to the source.
The semiconductor market is very much a rollercoaster, as reflected in headlines over the last year spanning shortages and surplus, plans for closures and expansions, and stock price collapses and surges. TSMC is so pivotal to the tech industry at large that it has been buffered somewhat from the worst of the recent business cycle. There were some indications of lowered confidence in recent months, with talk of recession in many parts of the globe, between the crypto collapse and the AI boom, but TSMC hasn't fared too badly. Now, with customers like Nvidia and Apple pushing for more, newer, and better chips, it is understandable that TSMC should again feel confident enough to dig out its price increase email template.
