With Nvidia AI chip demand hot, foundry TSMC also all the way to increase production capacity.
According to Taiwan media “Economic Daily News” reported that TSMC CoWoS (Note: Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate) advanced packaging production capacity is full, actively expanding production, rumors of large customers NVIDIA expand AI chip orders, coupled with AMD, Amazon and other large manufacturers rush single emergence, TSMC this rush to find the equipment supplier to purchase additional CoWoS equipment, in the existing In addition to the existing target of increasing production, the order quantity of the equipment has been increased by another 30%, highlighting that the current AI market continues to be hot.
Reportedly, TSMC seeks the assistance of Xinwei, Wanrun, Hong plastic, titanium rise, Qunyi and other equipment manufacturers to expand the reinforcement of CoWoS equipment, is expected to be completed in the first half of next year and installed, the relevant equipment factory busy days, not only has previously taken the TSMC original expansion target machine orders, and now again to be pursued by the order of 30%, the second half of the year, revenues will grow significantly, but also led to the relevant equipment factory in the orders on hand visibility up to the first half of next year! The first half of next year.
Industry sources revealed that TSMC’s current CoWoS advanced packaging monthly production capacity of about 12,000 pieces, previously launched after the expansion of production, the original monthly production capacity gradually expanded to 15,000 to 20,000 pieces, and now additional equipment stationed in the monthly production capacity of up to more than 25,000 pieces, and even close to 30,000 pieces, making TSMC to undertake AI-related orders greatly increased energy.
None of the equipment makers that have been tipped off would comment on the order dynamics. Sources close to the matter revealed that with the substantial development of AI computing applications, including assisting machines to learn on their own, training large-scale language models (LLM) and AI inferences, etc., and landing in the field of self-driving cars and smart factories, AI chip demand will maintain strong growth.
The report also said that NVIDIA, AMD and other large customers have increased in the third quarter of the wafer foundry chip volume, effectively boosting TSMC 7nm and 5nm advanced process capacity utilization, but CoWoS advanced packaging capacity is in short supply, has become the biggest bottleneck in the production chain.
TSMC’s President, Mr. Wei Zhejia, mentioned in a recent press conference that TSMC has been actively expanding its CoWoS advanced packaging capacity in the hope that it can alleviate the pressure of capacity constraints after the second half of 2024. It is understood that TSMC has squeezed out plant space to increase CoWoS capacity in Zhuko, Zhongke, Nanke, Longtan, etc., and the Zhunan packaging and testing plant will also synchronize the construction of advanced packaging production lines such as CoWoS and TSMC SoIC.
Industry sources pointed out that TSMC began to start CoWoS advanced packaging production expansion plan in the second quarter, the first batch of order procurement in May for the equipment factory, the equipment is expected to be in place at the end of the first quarter of next year and installed to complete the monthly production capacity of CoWoS advanced packaging can then be increased to 15,000 to 20,000 pieces. Even though TSMC has been vigorously expanding CoWoS capacity, the outbreak of client demand has led TSMC to place additional orders for the equipment co-founders.
Equipment practitioners pointed out that NVIDIA is currently TSMC’s largest customer for CoWoS advanced packaging, with orders accounting for 60% of production capacity. Recently, due to strong demand for AI computing, NVIDIA has expanded its orders, and urgent orders from customers such as AMD, Amazon, Broadcom, etc., have also begun to emerge. Considering the urgent demand for CoWoS advanced packaging capacity from customers, TSMC has once again pursued an order for 30% of the capacity from equipment factories, and requested to complete the delivery and installation before the end of the second quarter of next year, and to enter mass production in the second half of next year.
