TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – According to Taipei-based TrendForce, TSMC remains the world’s top wafer foundry, with market share increasing to 67.6% in the first quarter.
Looking ahead to the second quarter, TrendForce said TSMC will benefit from demand associated with AI and high-performance computing, which will be the key to capacity utilization. These factors helped offset the traditionally slow season for cellphone placement as quarterly revenue reached US$25.5 billion (NT$754 billion), a decrease of 5% from the previous quarter, per UDN.
TSMC’s decline mirrored an overall drop in the global foundry industry, according to TrendForce, which said Trump-era tariffs and political turmoil have been a disruption, with overall revenue falling 5.4% quarter-on-quarter to US$36.4 billion.
Second place in the global foundry business went to Samsung, whose revenue dropped 11.3% quarter-on-quarter to US$2.89 billion, and whose market share decreased to 7.7% due to the US ban on advanced chips to Chinese customers.
Meanwhile, SMIC benefited from customers stocking up in advance of US tariffs and a Chinese subsidy program begun this year to encourage consumers to upgrade cellphones. Its revenue increased 1.8% quarter-on-quarter to US$2.25 billion, ranking third.
UMC maintained its fourth-place ranking as upstream customers stocked up, keeping wafer shipments and capacity utilization roughly the same as the previous quarter. However, its average selling price declined due to a one-time annual price adjustment, and revenue fell 5.8% quarter-on-quarter to US$1.76 billion.
GlobalFoundries, which mainly operates in markets outside China, did not benefit from China’s government subsidies in the first quarter. Coupled with the off-season, both wafer shipments and ASP declined, with revenue down 13.9% quarter-on-quarter to US$1.58 billion, and its market share also shrank slightly.
HuaHong Group ranked sixth in revenue in the first quarter. Its revenue benefited from the new production capacity of HHGrace, and a low-price strategy attracted customers to invest in wafers. Revenue was roughly flat with the previous quarter; however, after the merger of HLMC and other units, the group’s revenue decreased by 3% quarter-on-quarter to US$1.01 billion.
Vanguard benefited from tariffs as customers stocked up in the first quarter, and its capacity utilization rate was better than previous off-seasons. Although ASP declined, revenue still increased by 1.7% quarter-on-quarter to US$363 million, and its ranking rose to seventh.
Tower fell to eighth place amid seasonal factors and without China-subsidy support, with first-quarter revenue down 7.4% quarter-on-quarter to US$358 million.
Nexchip received urgent orders in response to US tariffs, boosting wafer output and driving revenue growth of 2.6% to US$353 million, ranking ninth.
PSMC also saw tariff-driven demand, though memory foundry production softened; capacity utilization held steady and revenue dipped 1.8% quarter-on-quarter to US$327 million, ranking tenth.
