[Global Science and Technology Comprehensive Report] "Nihon Keizai Shimbun" reported on April 26 that the world's largest semiconductor foundry company, Taiwan Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (TSMC, TSMC) is maintaining rapid growth. Currently, the market share in the global OEM market exceeds 50%, with a total market value of approximately 18 trillion yen, which is close to the US Intel, which has been the industry leader for many years. The foundry model led by TSMC founder and chairman Zhang Zhongmou continued to expand, changing the industrial structure of the semiconductor industry. Today, TSMC, the “backstage ruler†of the IT industry, has embraced entrepreneurship for 30 years. Data map At the TSMC earnings briefing held in Taipei on April 13th, co-CEO Liu Deyin expressed with confidence that high-performance semiconductor needs in many fields will be met in artificial intelligence (AI), automatic driving and 5G communication. Increase, this will become the growth engine of TSMC. TSMC’s consolidated financial statements for January-March 2017, released on the same day, showed that net profit rose by 35% year-on-year to NT$87.6 billion, setting a new quarterly record for January-March quarter. As of the previous fiscal quarter, TSMC has reached historical highs for five consecutive quarters, and its growth momentum remains strong. TSMC's net sales margin reached 37%, a rare high level in manufacturing. TSMC uses the cash earned in its business to implement equipment investment of 1 trillion yen each year. One of the reasons for the record high profits is Apple's "iPhone 7". The entire production of the CPU (central processing unit) that plays a role in this cell phone is assumed by TSMC. TSMC seized orders from South Korea's Samsung Electronics, which had previously been responsible for OEM. Some people also speculated that "Apple is far from the Samsung that competed in the field of smart phones." On the other hand, the exclusive order that can be received from Apple is played by TSMC’s technical strength behind it. Apple's "iPhone 6s" OEM orders were taken by Samsung and TSMC. At that time, TSMC first achieved a stable mass production system. An Apple source disclosed that "TSMC had proved its technical strength last time and obtained design orders for the special circuit that Apple first adopted on the iPhone 7." TSMC has trading relationships with other smart phone CPU manufacturers such as Qualcomm. Most of the 1.5 billion smartphones shipped each year carry semiconductors manufactured by TSMC. TSMC is thought to produce tens of billions of semiconductors each year and is widely used in home appliances, automobiles, and industrial equipment. However, the strength of TSMC is not just mass production technology. Another strength is the large intellectual property database formed over time. TSMC purchased technology from British semiconductor design company ARM Holdings, etc., or accumulates technical patents through authorization. Customers can use more than 10,000 technical patents. In addition, TSMC is also deeply involved in the design and development. A supplier's executives said, "Everyone has to rely on TSMC." TSMC is equipped with a dedicated team of several people for each customer, providing assistance from design, development to production. Thousands of TSMC’s customer service employees are Ph.D. technicians in the United States. Tatsuno Ono, president of TSMC’s Japanese corporation, stated that “(we are) serving the customer’s service industryâ€. As long as we can increase production and improve equipment efficiency, we can continue to win. In 1987, Zhang Zhongmou, who founded TSMC, deeply regarded the victory of the semiconductor industry and constantly tried to create a first-rate model of OEM. The "snowball" approach has formed a mechanism for raising funds, technology and orders. At present, semi-conductor manufacturers that cannot afford huge equipment investment have also started OEM production. Renesas Electronics of Japan announced that the most advanced 28-nanometer (1-nanometer-one-billionth-meter) product for use in onboard microcomputers will be commissioned by TSMC in the future. However, the status quo of TSMC’s dominance is not without risks. This is because customers need a TSMC competitor to achieve stable procurement and reduce OEM costs. Qualcomm is believed to have handed over CPU orders with the most advanced circuit line width of 10 nanometers to Samsung. TSMC has now begun to face the strong "growth ceiling."
