Huawei cuts TSMC orders - more production capacity for Apple, AMD and NVIDIA

Word is going around that Huawei's HiSilicon has reduced wafer orders at TSMC. Hexus writes that due to a downturn in smartphone shipments caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the trade war with the US, Huawei has reduced its N7 and N5 process node orders at TSMC.

The site notes Apple, NVIDIA and AMD took up the freed production capacity:

With reference to TSMC's N5 process, ChainNews, via RetiredEngineer, reports that Apple quickly stepped in to take up the slack provided by Huawei's cut-backs. It adds that Apple has, additionally, asked TSMC to add nearly 10,000 wafers per month (wpm) in Q4, for it next gen iDevices.

Interestingly, both Apple and AMD are looking to book 'N5 Enhanced' production capacity at TSMC for later in the year. This enhanced process was developed specifically for AMD, says the report.

TSMC has yet to open its full capacity for N5 but it will have reached this milestone by mid-year. It also plans to keep up with N7 orders which are fully booked at least to the end of 2020. On the topic of N7, the report states that Huawei HiSilicon also reduced its orders with TSMC using this process. This capacity has been keenly taken up by AMD again, as well as Nvidia, says the report.

Volume production of TSMC's 5nm process is expected to start soon, while 3nm is reportedly facing a delay due to logistics and supply chain issued caused by the coronavirus. TSMC is expected to start producing 3nm chips in 2022.

Interestingly, DigiTimes reports today that Huawei placed 14nm chip orders at Chinese foundry SMIC.