The price of TSMC's 3nm wafer is as high as 20,000 US dollars per piece

According to industry sources, TSMC’s sales price per wafer has increased exponentially from the process node below 10nm, and the price of a 3nm wafer is as high as $20,000.

According to Taiwan media "Electronic Times", sources said that when TSMC became the first chip manufacturer in the world to adopt 193nm lithography technology in mass production, the price of 90nm wafers deploying 193nm tools was close to 2000 US dollars in 2004/ piece. Wafer prices have been rising steadily until foundries enter the sub-10nm process space. In 2008, the price of the 40nm process was US$2,600 per piece, in 2011 the price of the 28nm process was about US$3,000, and when the 10nm process was introduced and put into mass production in 2017, the price was about US$6,000 per 12-inch wafer.

"However, when TSMC launched the 7nm process in 2018, the wafer price jumped to nearly $10,000, and the price of the 5nm wafer exceeded $16,000 in 2020," the source said.

Sources pointed out that TSMC’s 3nm wafer price is estimated to exceed $20,000, which will definitely increase the cost burden on chip and system suppliers, and it will be inevitable to pass on the rising costs to downstream customers and ultimately to end consumers.

A few days ago, TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou said that he would not rule out moving some advanced production capacity to the United States for production, and it is also possible to transfer 3nm to regions outside Taiwan, such as the United States. Zhang Zhongmou pointed out that there is a plan now, but it has not been fully finalized. It should be said that it is almost finalized, that is, in the same Arizona state, "3nm is phase 2 (second phase), 5nm is phase 1 (first phase)." TSMC He responded that there is no further information at present.