Apple’s chip maker TSMC now accounts for over half its market

This is not a TSMC factory

Buoyed by iPhone, iPad and soon the Mac, Apple’s chip manufacturer, TSMC, now accounts for over half of the global chip foundry market.

Pushing hard for iPhone

It’s reported that around two-thirds of TSMC’s 5-nanometer capacity is currently occupied in manufacturing A14 processors for the iPhone 12 range that’s scheduled to be announced next week.

TSMC saw a 22% rise in quarterly sales and now expects its revenues to grow by more than 20% this year, despite the ban on production for Huawei.

Strong demand for 5G chips will also boost TSMC’s sales by 8-10% in Q4 – particularly once Apple succeeds in placing 5G within the same SoC in a couple of year’s time.

What might this mean?

The easiest take away from this news could be that Apple now accounts for over half of all computer sales, but that’s a claim that may prove hard to maintain – and the data only reflects Q3 2020, when TSMC was likely churning out chips for future iPhones.

What seems more likely is that Apple has succeeded in maintaining its market during what is doubtless some of the toughest sales conditions we’ve ever endured, with international tension high and a pandemic ravaging our populations.

What remains to be seen is how well it has fared against competitors in its spaces, which means it will be very interesting to see the IDC/Canalsys/Gartner end of year reports this year. After all, with iPad and Mac sales combined, Apple is already the world’s second biggest computer maker – can it become the biggest?

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