Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. released its Q4'2023 and full year 2023 financial results this week. And along with a look at the financial state of the firm as it enters 2024, the company's earnings info also offers a fresh look at the utilization of their various fab nodes. Of particular interest, with TSMC ramping up production of chips on its N3 (3 nm-class) process technology, N3 (aka N3B) has already reached the point where it accounts for 15% of TSMC's revenue in Q4 2023. This is a very fast – albeit not record fast – revenue ramp.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, sales of wafers processed using N3 accounted for 15% of TSMC's total wafer revenue, whereas revenue of N5 and N7 accounted for 39% and 17% respectively. In terms of dollars, N3 revenue for TSMC was $2.943 billion, N5 sales totaled $6.867 billion, and N7 revenue reached $3.3354 billion. In general, advanced technologies (N7, N5, N3) commanded 67% of TSMC's revenue, whereas the larger grouping of FinFET-based process technologies accounted for 75% of the company's total wafer revenue.
