TSMC is now making 7nm chips for clients

At the firm's technology symposium on June 21, TSMC CEO CC Wei revealed that the foundry is now manufacturing 7nm chips for commercial clients. Before the end of this year, TSMC expects it will tape out over 50 7nm chip designs for customers, with AI, GPU and cryptocurrency chips taking up the majority of these, followed by 5G and application processors.

At the same time, TSMC confirmed it will tape out the first enhanced 7nm EUV chips in the second half of this year. Risk production on this node is expected to start in Q3 2018.

Orders for Apple's custom A12 processor for use in the upcoming iPhones will play a major driver of TSMC's 7nm chip production growth in 2018, according to market sources. The foundry has secured 7nm chip orders from about 20 customers including AMD, Bitmain, Nvidia and Qualcomm. The majority of the orders will be carried out in the first half of 2019, the sources said.

As we already reported last week, TSMC will invest a massive $25 billion in its 5nm production rampup. Risk production of 5nm chips is expected to start in the first half of 2019, with volume production scheduled for late 2019 or early 2020.

Via: DigiTimes