Foundries to prioritize long-term clients

DigiTimes report Taiwanese foundries, which likely includes TSMC and UMC, have decided to prioritize long-term clients. Capacity is very tight on both cutting-edge and mature nodes. The foundries are reportedly giving higher priority to long-term and established clients. Not sure what this means for Intel, who is reportedly trying to secure 5nm and 3nm capacity for future Core processors.

Chip vendors have been striving to obtain capacity support from Taiwan-based foundry houses, which nevertheless have been unable to meet all demand due to tight capacity. The foundries are prioritizing long-term clients. The foundries also have given priority to automotive chip clients, but support for them will increase at the expense of some Taiwanese IC design houses who may see delays in shipments. The pandemic has created unexpectedly strong demand for some industry sectors, such as LCD. Taiwan-based panel maker AUO will keep production lines running at full throttle during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday in mid February to satisfy clients' demand.