TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Increasing orders from four Chinese firms — Xiaomi, OPPO, Bitmain, and Horizon Robot — are set to bring Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s (TSMC) China-based revenues to levels not seen since 2020, when the company scrapped Huawei from its customer list.
As of the first quarter of this year, profits coming from Chinese customers made up 11% of TSMC’s global revenue. This marks a significant increase from last year, when Chinese firms represented just 6% of the total, per a TechGenyz report.
As several Chinese firms rush to get orders in for TSMC’s 28 nm, 7 nm, 6 nm, and 4 nm processes, TSMC predicts its China sales for this year could reach 2020 levels, when China made up 22% of the total. The world’s leading chipmaker anticipates revenue from China could rise to more than NT$250 billion (US$8.5 billion) next year.
Despite China making strides in chip design, it remains heavily reliant on TSMC for fabricating a range of cutting-edge chips. UNISOC, for instance, has placed orders with TSMC for 6 nm and 12 nm mobile chips as well as 5 nm and 7 nm chips for ZTE’s 5G base stations.
Handset-maker OPPO is leaning on TSMC’s 6 nm process to deliver over 10 million units of its new self-designed AI-powered image neural processing unit MariSilicon X. Meanwhile, Horizon Robotics, which makes AI chips for smart cars, is looking to TSMC to fabricate its upcoming Journey 6 series chips, which will run at over 400 Tera Operations per Second, unlocking Level 4 autonomous driving, which needs little to no human interaction.
