The race for three-nanometer chips has seen TSMC’s customer queue lengthen significantly in summer 2022, with giants such as Apple, Intel and NVIDIA vying for access to the first batches. Finally the time has come for them: TSMC will start 3nm mass production next week.
As reported by the Asian portals Taiwan Economic Daily and ITHome, the president of the large Taiwanese chip maker is ready to keep his promise: a few days ago, in fact, the company announced an event dedicated to the opening of dedicated production lines. The ceremony will be held on 29 December and will see not only the start of production, but also the expansion of the factory in Nanke.
According to President Wei Zhejia’s previous statements, TSMC’s three nanometers have a good rate of return and they will be able to serve the world’s most important customers with chips for use in mobile phones, computers and more. Nonetheless, there are “important difficulties” that the company will have to face together with its partner producers.
The affected plant is just the Nanke Wafer Facility 18, the main production base for the three-nanometer node, which will be divided into multiple combinations. In other words, 2023 will be the year of 3 nanometers. Now the wait concerns the 3 nm plant in the United States, thanks to the investments in Arizona recorded at the end of November; there could even be Apple’s hand behind this momentous move, which takes part of TSMC’s production out of Taiwan, consolidating good relations with the United States.
Finally, we also recall that TSMC is racing towards the 1-nanometer process, potentially launching it after 2026 and by 2030.
