Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has held discussions with clients about chipmaking price increases of as much as 10 percent next year to cover the rising cost of manufacturing, the Nikkei reported yesterday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.The main producer for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc began those talks last month and finalized base-price hikes this month of between 5 percent and 10 percent, the newspaper reported. The changes will take effect next year and cover both advanced and mature semiconductors, the Nikkei said.TSMC and other chipmakers are grappling with the soaring cost of a plethora of items employed in production including materials, equipment and power. This month, Taiwan’s largest company raised its spending projections for this year, anticipating artificial intelligence (AI) demand as well as the growing cost of expanding capacity — particularly as it proceeds with a US$265 billion expansion in Arizona.
The logo of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co is pictured at the company’s quarter earnings conference in Taipei on Thursday last week.
TSMC, which fabricates chips for many of the world’s biggest tech names from Alphabet Inc to Amazon.com Inc, has long resisted the sharp price swings that characterize the adjacent memory industry. It’s consistently espoused long-term partnerships with customers through volatile up- and down-cycles. At the same time, global supply chain disruptions from the Middle East conflict and raging AI industry demand are inflating costs and piling pressure on TSMC to accelerate capacity construction around the world.TSMC is postponing price hikes to next year to give its customers time to adjust, the Nikkei said.
