- The CEO of AMD indicated that the chips made in the American factories of TSMC will be more expensive
- Lisa is said that they could be more expensive from 5% to 20% than the chips produced in Taiwan
- Su maintains that the cost is worth it in terms of diversification of the supply chain
The CEO of AMD admitted that the company’s tokens will be a little more expensive when they are produced in TSMC factories in the United States (as opposed to Taiwan).
Bloomberg reports that it will be more expensive to obtain the fleas of the new TSMC Arizona factory than its Taiwan factories. TSMC is the flea manufacturer that AMD uses to make most of its processors and GPU, and AMD should start to receive fleas from the Arizona factory before the end of 2025).
During an AI event, the CEO Lisa Su said that American fleas will be “more than 5% but less than 20%” more expensive compared to “similar” parts produced in Taiwan. The director general also observed that yields in the American factory are comparable to Taiwanese facilities in TSMC. (The yield is the percentage of chips that make the note to be used in a finished product – not all silicon, and the chips of this category are often reused for lower level equipment).
In an interview with Bloomberg who followed the event, SU argued that any additional expense was worth it in terms of diversification where AMD outsins its production. The CEO said: “We must consider resilience in the supply chain. We have learned that in the pandemic.”
Su also pointed out that the request for IA chips, wherever it is produced, is nowhere to and remains massive – which is not news for anyone, of course.
Analysis: It is still early for TSMC US
Although yields can be similar (or at least we are told), what SU does not mention is that the most advanced TSMC processes are exclusive to its production facilities in Taiwan. Arizona only goes to node N4, which is 4 nm – while the cutting -edge production process for TSMC is now 2 nm.
Finally, however, the plan is to manufacture these more advanced products in the United States – investment in Arizona is enormous, after all – but for the moment, it is simply a question of adding diversity, as said on.
However, all the parts of this diversity puzzle are not yet in place, at least according to recent reports, which observe that AMD still has to return fleas made in the United States to Taiwan for the finish (if they need advanced packaging applied).
The plan is that it happens in the United States finally – but for the moment, there is apparently this clumsy and rather impractical bypass solution in the context of precipitation to draw more door tokens (to meet the request for AI, which is, as mentioned, enormous).
This could be one of the reasons why the costs can be swollen, as well as potentially higher costs to be based in the United States in the first place (like workforce, perhaps).
The estimate of SU is quite varied here, and a price leap from 5% to 20% is a large gulf. The first seems relatively insignificant, the second represents a much less pleasant rise to the taste – Gifler 20% on the cost of a typical Ryzen Workhorse processor would be used at $ 50 on the top, or almost (which goes much cheaper now).
Okay, you cannot boil this scenario to boil this result – there are many more factors to consider here, including that the ES estimate is rather vague – but the highest level of the scale provided for the potential cost increase is somewhat worrying, that’s for sure.
As it is the fact that it is not only a rumor that escapes from an anonymous source somewhere in the supply chain, but that it comes from the CEO itself.
