“The flood of investments by Taiwanese TSMC will crush the competition”

A the time when urbanites in a hurry can now have their evening pizza delivered to their homes in less than ten minutes, the news is something to be wondering about. At the other end of the Internet chain, the delivery time for obtaining a microchip for a basic smartphone is now, according to Bloomberg, twenty-six weeks. The end of the shortage is therefore not for tomorrow. And the big winner in this scarcity economy is, once again, the Taiwanese TSMC.

Read our explanations: Semiconductors: what are these electronic chips whose shortage is disrupting the global economy?

The firm announced Thursday, January 13, that it expected sales growth of 15% to 20% for 2022, while most analysts project a stabilization of the market. The very low-key TSMC is now Asia’s most expensive company. By reaching the 620 billion dollars (540 billion euros) of stock market valuation, it exceeds the Chinese giants Alibaba or Tencent and the Korean Samsung.

But what most astounded observers was the announcement of a considerable increase in investment. In 2021, the firm surprised the whole world by announcing its intention to invest $ 100 billion over the next three years, more than what Volkswagen plans to commit in ten years to successfully convert to the electric car. It will ultimately be much more. Instead of the 30 billion in 2021, the company will spend in the year 2022 alone nearly 44 billion dollars, or 45% more!

Little oxygen for Europe

This means that the Taiwanese does not anticipate any slowdown in the market, as new factories are opening everywhere. He himself is in the process of completing one in the United States and is going to establish another in Japan. In this very cyclical industry, phases of overproduction, and therefore collapsing prices, follow periods of scarcity like today. On the contrary, TSMC sees continued growth, driven by the deployment of 5G, artificial intelligence and autonomous cars.

But this growth will not be for everyone. Because this deluge of investment will crush the competition. What will drive future growth and profits will be the very top of the line: these chips so thin and complex to manufacture that a single factory costs $ 10 billion to $ 20 billion in investment. By setting the bar even higher, the firm wants to distance Intel, which, to catch up, has planned to invest “only” from 25 billion to 28 billion in 2022, and also Samsung, which remains however unchallengeable on the market of briefs.

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