A report on Friday indicates Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will be the sole supplier for Apple’s “A13” chip, which will power Apple’s iOS devices in 2019. DigiTimes says its supply chain sources tell it TSMC stands to retain its status as the sole source of Apple’s A-Series chips.
TSMC grabbed a 56% share of the global pure-play foundry market in the first half of 2018. With TSMC set to remain Apple’s exclusive supplier of A-series chips in 2019, the Taiwan-based foundry stands a good chance of seeing its global market share top 60% next year, the sources said.
The firm has been the sole supplier of A-Series chips since 2016, despite efforts by competitor Samsung to regain its footing as a supplier of the chips. However, advances by TSMC, as well as ongoing legal battles between Samsung and Apple, led to Apple’s moving the lion’s share of A-Series chip production over to TSMC, who has become the exclusive supplier of the chips.
TSMC’s integrated fan-out (InFO) wafer-level packaging technology has made its 7nm process technology more competitive than its counterparts. TSMC is also expected to introduce the industry’s first commercially-available 7nm EUV process, DigiTimes’ sources say.
TSMC’s 7nm process technology is also expected to obtain orders from AMD, Huawei, MediaTek, Nvidia and Qualcomm. A ramp-up of 7nm chip orders will boost the foundry’s market share to a new high in 2019, the sources noted.
Competitor Globalfoundries is reportedly putting its 7nm plans on hold indefinitely, leaving few competitors to TSMC in the under-10nm process segment.