TSMC, a well-known foundry company, held a 2019 technical seminar in Shanghai. Wei Zhejia, president of TSMC Global, revealed in the speech that in the first two quarters of next year, products supported by the 5-nanometer technology will be mass-produced.
In terms of production, Wei Zhejia introduced that the latest 7 nanometer related products on the market are all produced by TSMC and its partners. For the next 5 nanometer technology, engineers have already completed product design on this technology. Mass production can be achieved in the first and second quarters next year.
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As for the production capacity, currently, TSMC can produce 12 million of 12-inch wafers and 11 million of 8-inch wafers. Wei Zhejia also promised that TSMC will invest more than $10 billion this year to increase production capacity.
Looking forward to the future, Wei Zhejia pointed out that 5G technology will give TSMC more opportunities. And the combination of 5-nanometer technology will also generate new sparks. This will make people’s daily life safer and more comfortable.
In some sense, this news is in line with the one that was claiming TSMC will produce a 5nm chip for Apple next year. Moreover, we learned that the Apple iPhone 2020 may become the first handset powered by a chip that performs on a 5nm process node. If combining all these leaks, we can assume Apple will get an ‘empty window’ at the beginning of 2020. This may really help the Cupertino-based company to improve its sales. But if other manufacturers get TSMC’s 5nm chips simultaneously, Apple will have fewer chances to outrun its pursuers.
