AMD 28nm process GPU orders switch to GF

According to Taiwan’s “Economic Daily” report, there is news from the market that the 28nm newest product of TSMC's GPU major customer, AMD, will be transferred to its own GLOBALFOUNDRIES company’s OEM. GLOBALFOUNDRIES has successively received advanced process orders from AMD, Qualcomm and STMicroelectronics, which were formerly important customers of TSMC and challenged TSMC's leading position in the advanced process OEM market. Both sides' competition is becoming increasingly intense.

Global graphics chip duo AMD and NVIDIA are not only TSMC’s most important customers in the PC chip field, but also the main force contributing to TSMC’s advanced process revenue. Half of the revenue of TSMC's 40nm process comes from the contributions of AMD and NVIDIA.

According to IC Insights statistics, TSMC finally won 52% of the global wafer foundry market share last year. AMD's transfer order may cause the market share of TSMC to fall below 50%. At the same time, advanced manufacturing process is the main force contributing to TSMC's revenue. If the high-end process city's market share is lost, it means that revenue may decrease.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi Investment Corporation (ATIC) and AMD in the United Arab Emirates, followed a merger with Singapore Chartered Semiconductor last year and targeted TSMC. The company not only called for 30% of the global wafer foundry market within two years, but also increased its capital expenditure from US$2.5 billion to US$2.7 billion to US$2.8 billion, becoming the world’s fifth-largest semiconductor plant for capital expenditure. TSMC only acquired 40nm orders for AMD's next-generation Funsion processor from GLOBALFOUNDRIES. AMD recently announced the latest 28nm GPU products, which will be transferred to GLOBALFOUNDRIES production early next year. The competition between the two parties is very intense. Analysts said that TSMC's advanced manufacturing process can lead significantly, in addition to strong research and development capabilities, is relying on the help of NVIDIA and AMD's huge capacity. The industry believes that if AMD disperses 28nm GPUs into GLOBALFOUNDRIES foundry, it will pose a threat to TSMC's advanced process market share.

The industry representatives of the wafer industry pointed out that when Abu Dhabi’s investment decision reached GLOBALFOUNDRIES last year, it spoke with AMD about the incidental conditions. The two sides signed a memorandum of cooperation on contract manufacturing. As long as the GLOBALFOUNDRIES advanced process technology is achieved, the AMD GPU will go to GLOBALFOUNDRIES. OEM.

In August last year, GLOBALFOUNDRIES also won orders for subordinate 45nm foundry chips from integrated chip maker STMicroelectronics. At the beginning of this year, it signed a contract with Qualcomm, the three largest customers of TSMC, to obtain orders for Qualcomm's 45nm and 28nm products. However, GLOBALFOUNDRIES does not currently have formal 40nm services. Only 45nm, the industry's 28nm mass production capacity of GLOBALFOUNDRIES remains to be observed.

According to TSMC's plans, 28nm low-power process has been trial production in January, and high-speed process will be launched in September. Full line services will be available in the first half of next year. GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm is expected to test production early next year and provide production services in the second half of next year as soon as possible. The gap with TSMC is within one quarter.