TSMC’s 3-nm Chip Production Put off Due to Delay in Intel’s New CPU Launch

Taiwanese market research firm TrendForce said on Aug. 5 that Intel postponed Meteor Lake CPU production initiation from the second half of 2022 to the first half of 2023 and TSMC had to cancel as a result most of its 3-nm product manufacturing plan for 2023. Previously, the Taiwanese company announced that the manufacturing would start in the second half of this year.

The 14th-generation CPU of Intel was expected to be produced based on TSMC’s 3-nm process. More recently, however, Intel announced that it would produce 2-nm chips on its own starting from 2024, which means it is unlikely to use TSMC’s 3-nm products. On the other hand, Apple is likely to stick to its plan, that is, utilizing TSMC’s 3-nm process for the iPhone 15 to be launched in 2023.

According to industry sources, the situations in Intel and TSMC can be good news on Samsung Electronics’ part as it is currently the only one capable of supplying 3-nm products to fabless companies. “Samsung Electronics is already supplying those products to at least two clients and the demand is expected to keep rising faster than Samsung Electronics’ capacity expansion,” one of them explained, adding, “In addition, Samsung Electronics will be able to widen its advanced process gap with TSMC if it develops and manufactures second-generation 3-nm products as planned.”
 

“TSMC decided to slow down facility expansion in order to prevent an excessively idle capacity and it is currently reducing equipment orders for 2023 after high costs were incurred in relation to 3-nm process investment,” TrendForce said, adding, “This is likely to affect its 2023 capital expenditures and its 2023 sales are likely to grow at a slow pace.”