According to foreign media reports, last week TSMC, the leading foundry company, announced its June 2021 revenue, a record amount of NT$148.471 billion, or about US$5.3 billion. This is the first time that TSMC’s monthly revenue has exceeded the US$5 billion mark. The monthly growth was 22.8%, which was also a 32.1% increase over the same period in 2020. The sharp increase in revenue shows that TSMC’s new A15 processor, which was manufactured by Apple for Apple’s N5P process, has begun mass production, which is expected to be paired with the iPhone 13 to be launched in the fall.

The more advanced the process technology of the foundry industry, the higher the foundry price. In terms of TSMC’s most advanced 5nm process technology, some studies have pointed out that the foundry price of each wafer is close to 17,000 US dollars, which is an 80% increase over the previous generation of 7nm process technology.

There are not many customers using TSMC's 5nm process, and Apple is the main customer. In addition, the foundry price of other TSMC process technologies is significantly lower than that of the 5-nanometer process. In addition, the capacity demand for other process technologies is relatively stable. Even for automotive chips, there is a shortage of supply at the beginning of the year. Therefore, TSMC has coordinated production capacity very early and is unlikely to promote 6 Monthly revenue increased significantly. According to this trend analysis, it is very likely that the mass production of Apple's A15 processor has driven TSMC's revenue growth in June.

According to market observations, Apple’s A15 processor uses TSMC’s N5P process, which is the second-generation 5-nanometer process. Not only has the performance and energy efficiency been improved, but the foundry price is also higher than that of the A14 processor’s 5-nanometer process technology.

Considering that it will take some time for automotive chips to coordinate production capacity support and finally ship, automotive chips may also contribute partly to TSMC's June revenue boost. Compared with the amount of revenue, the car chip may still not be able to compare with the higher foundry price of Apple's A15 processor. At the end of March this year, foreign media emphasized that Apple’s iPhone 13 will be equipped with A15 processor in the fall of 2021, and mass production is expected at the end of May at the earliest. It is expected that TSMC will have amazing revenue in June, and then there will be good revenue momentum.