Samsung and Intel are trying to overtake TSMC, but TSMC chairman C. C. Wei's answer to that challenge is: "No way!"

Since the beginning of May, several well-known Large Language Model (LLM) enterprises in China have announced price reductions, including Aliyun, Baidu, KU Xiaofei, Tencent Cloud, ByteDance, and other operators.

RISC-V, an open standard instruction set architecture, has garnered global attention due to its royalty-free nature and adaptability for custom hardware development.

Benefiting from the expanded orders from AI and High-Performance Computing (HPC) customers, TSMC's May 2024 revenue remained high at NT$229.62 billion (US$7 billion), a slight decrease of 2.7% from April, but still a significant increase of 30.1% from the same period in 2023. Cumulatively, the first five months' revenue was NT$1.05 trillion, an annual increase of 27%.

Looking ahead to the second quarter, the pure-play foundry leader believes that even though its results will continue to be affected by the seasonal factors of smartphones, the strong demand for 3nm and 5nm technologies will still support the continued growth of TSMC's results, and estimates that the second quarter revenue will be around US$19.6 billion to US$20.4 billion, representing a quarterly increase of 3.86 to 8.1%. That would translate to NT$633.08 billion to NT$658.92 billion in local currency, based on the USD-TWD exchange rate of US$1: NT$32.3.

In March, China Resources announced the stunning news of acquiring SMIC's shares of JCET Group, a packaging and testing firm invested by China's National IC Industry Investment Fund (the "Big Fund"). The deal is a delicately calculated move rendering China Resources control over JCET and Sandisk.

Merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions in Taiwan grew 12% year-on-year in 2023 to 131 cases and may continue hitting another new high in 2024. Simon Huang, chairman of WPG and chairman of Taiwan Industrial Holding Association, shared his insights on a 2024 Taiwan M&A and Private Equity Council Forum panel on May 29, saying that seeking common ground while respecting differences is the key to M&A success.

With Generative AI driving the demand for high-bandwidth memory, the R&D efforts of memory giants have also picked up pace.

The Japanese government has introduced a Strategic Startup Promotion Plan (SIP) to address the challenges facing material and pharmaceutical startups.

The internet giants are building comprehensive ecosystems, in which Generative AI (GenAI) plays a pivotal role. "From cloud to the edge" will be an inevitable trend.

In 2000, Bill Gates visited Taiwan for the World Congress of Information Technology (WCIT), and in 2009, Steve Ballmer, the second president of Microsoft, visited Taiwan only for one day. These were the only two times that the CEOs of Microsoft visited Taiwan.

The explosive growth in Generative AI (GenAI) business opportunities spurred by ChatGPT drives the demand for hardware and software related to the GenAI supply chain. TSMC, the sole supplier of AI chips for Nvidia and other vendors, is also bolstering its supply chain partners with recent capacity expansions.

KPMG Taiwan released the latest Global Venture Capital Analysis report on May 9, saying that Artificial Intelligence (AI) startups are the apple in the eyes of venture capitalists worldwide.

Compared to TSMC, Samsung Electronics, and even Intel Foundry, which have moved into sub-7nm advanced processes, GlobalFoundries (GF), which announced in August 2018 that it would indefinitely shelve its sub-7nm development, still has a chance to enter the AI market pie. Is there still a chance for GF to get a piece of the AI market pie?

Compared to TSMC, Samsung Electronics, and even Intel Foundry, which have moved into sub-7nm advanced processes, GlobalFoundries (GF), which announced in August 2018 that it would indefinitely shelve its sub-7nm development, still has a chance to enter the AI market pie. Is there still a chance for GF to get a piece of the AI market pie?

AMD challenges Nvidia's dominance in the AI market with its Instinct MI300 accelerator which has been well-received by the market. However, since Nvidia's next-generation Blackwell platform is priced lower than expected, how would that impact AMD?

The potential of advanced packaging technology to upgrade chip performance has attracted many Japanese equipment and material suppliers to allocate their resources in this highly specialized field to gain their entry into the high-margin market of advanced chips and Chiplet.

Nvidia announced that Japan's new quantum supercomputer — designed to advance the nation's quantum computing initiative — will be powered by Nvidia platforms for accelerated and quantum computing.

Upon TSMC Arizona's signing of a Preliminary Memorandum of Terms (PMT) with the Biden Administration, the decision to manufacture 2nm chips in its third fab and part of the second fab capacities in Arizona has many people questioning the plan.

Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) released data showing that as of December 2023, 1,209 Taiwanese companies had invested NT$2,735.6 billion (US$84.2 billion) in China, an increase of NT$32.4 billion from the end of 2022. However, investment repatriation from China last year alone accounted for 17.5% of the accumulated amount over the past, probably due to capital needs for supply chain migration.

After releasing its first quarter financial results on April 18, TSMC issued another important news release later in the evening to explain the impact of the April 3 earthquake.

China's Premier Li Qiang said in his work report to the National People's Congress that the government will formulate a strategy for the development of strategic emerging industries, and push forward a series of major science and technology projects to achieve major strategic and industrial development goals, with quantum computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and big data among the top priorities.

In 2023, Taiwan's exports declined by 9.8%, which is of course related to the weakening of electronics exports, but with a total export value of US$432.5 billion, a trade surplus of US$80.56 billion, and a surplus of over US$300 billion in tax revenue, the overall result is not too bad. S&P Global projects a 19.2% growth for Taiwan's exports in 2024. What can be expected optimistically and what should be planned for?

At a forum held during the Taipei International Book Exhibition 2024, DIGITIMES President Colley Hwang, a senior semiconductor industry expert, imparted a million-dollar information that competitors of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) would strive to get.