At present, affected by the epidemic, changes in the international situation, high inflation, supply chain obstruction and other factors, the development of the chip industry has become more and more complex: on the one hand, the car market is short of cores; On the other hand, the demand of the consumer market is weak, the supply of some chips exceeds the demand, the inventory of manufacturers is high, and the price of chips has fallen.
How do chip giants view and deal with the hot and cold market?
TSMC: partial capital expenditure postponed to 2023
On July 14, Wei Zhejia, President of TSMC, said that due to the poor supply chain, TSMC would postpone part of its capital expenditure in 2022 to 2023. Previously, TSMC set a capital expenditure of US $40-44 billion this year, a record high.
TSMC's latest financial report shows that the company's revenue in the second quarter was 18.16 billion US dollars, an increase of 36.6% year-on-year; The net profit was 8.504 billion US dollars, an increase of 76.4% year-on-year. In the first half of 2022, TSMC's revenue share in the field of high performance computing (HPC) has exceeded that of smartphones, which also reflects the strong demand for chips in data centers and servers.
Under the impact of inflation, conflict between Russia and Ukraine and weak consumption, the consumer chip market has ushered in a "trend of cutting orders". The industry is concerned about whether changes in demand will affect TSMC. In this regard, TSMC believes that there will be a typical cycle of decline in chip demand in 2023, but not the big decline cycle in 2008. TSMC expects that customers will start to reduce inventory, but there is not much inventory of high-end smartphones at present. For TSMC, next year is still a "year of growth".
Wei Zhejia emphasized that TSMC currently has three key factors, namely, leading technology, differentiation, strong product portfolio of efficient computing, and strategic partnership with customers, which promote strong growth of structural demand.
Intel: may raise the price of CPU and other chips
Recently, the media reported that Intel has informed customers that due to the rising cost, Intel will raise the price of flagship chips later this year, including the central processing units used in servers and personal computers (PCS), as well as chips used in other products such as WiFi, with a rise of at least single digit percentage and a maximum of more than 10% or 20%.
In April this year, Intel executives already released the signal of price increase at the first quarter earnings conference. At that time, pat Gelsinger, the CEO of Intel, said that Intel "recombined its products to a higher price", while Dave Zimmer, the CFO of Intel, said that Intel was "looking for price increase opportunities in certain segments."
The industry pointed out that the rise in the cost of bulk commodities, raw materials, transportation and labor since the beginning of this year has brought pressure to the industry.
However, under high inflation, the demand in the consumer electronics market is low, and the demand for chips has moved from insufficient supply to excess supply. Under this background, price increases may face certain obstacles. Therefore, it is reported that Intel is also considering the price increase.
Micron: adjust production capacity to meet weakening demand
On June 30, micron technology announced the third fiscal quarter financial results of fiscal year 2022. In this quarter, micron achieved a revenue of about 8.64 billion US dollars, an increase of 16.4% year-on-year; The net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders of the parent company was USD 2.626 billion, an increase of 51.35% year-on-year.
Despite the bright data in this quarter, micron made pessimistic expectations for the next fiscal quarter due to the weak demand of consumer electronics markets such as mobile phones and personal computers. The company expects fourth quarter revenue to be $7.2 billion, which is far lower than the $9.14 billion forecast by analysts.
Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of micron, said on the earnings conference call that it is expected that smartphone sales will decline by about 5% compared with last year, while personal computer sales may decline by 10% compared with last year. Micron is adjusting its production growth to meet the weakening demand.
On semiconductor and STMicroelectronics: actively expanding production
Unlike the downturn of the consumer chip market, the automotive chip market is developing vigorously. Therefore, the leading automotive chip enterprises represented by on semiconductor and STMicroelectronics are actively expanding their production to meet the demand of the automotive market.
On July 7, ansemi signed a memorandum of understanding on investment with Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, and plans to invest 1.4 trillion won in Fuchuan City, Gyeonggi province by 2025 to develop and produce silicon carbide (SIC) power semiconductors.
On July 11, Gexin and STMicroelectronics announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding and would cooperate to build a new 300mm (12 inch) semiconductor factory to promote the fd-soi ecosystem. The factory aims to produce up to 620000 300 mm wafers per year at full capacity by 2026.
It is reported that the new plant will support a variety of technologies, including silicon on insulator technology, and can produce chips of various sizes. The semiconductors produced will meet the market demands of automobiles, Internet of things and mobile communication applications.