Taiwan's TSMC maintains 70% utilization rate despite slowing chip orders, expects boost from Apple and AMD in Q2.

The declining utilization rate of semiconductor factories due to high inventory and low demand in the consumer market has become a common problem. However, according to reports from Taiwan's Electronic Times, TSMC's chip foundry factory is still able to maintain a utilization rate of 70% or above in the first quarter.

Although there has been a rapid slowdown in orders for TSMC's 7nm and 6nm chips, the utilization rate of the foundry factory in the first quarter has only slightly decreased overall. TSMC continues to increase the utilization rate of its 3nm technology, and it is expected to reach close to 50% by the end of March. The foundry is also expected to increase its production capacity to between 50,000 to 55,000 wafers per month in March.

It has been reported that the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro model from Apple is expected to use the A17 processor, which is the first iPhone processor based on TSMC's first-generation 3nm process, also known as N3E. Reports also suggest that Apple's next-generation 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models are expected to be equipped with the M3 processor, which may also be manufactured using the 3nm process to further improve performance and energy efficiency.

According to sources, new orders for AI processors from Nvidia and AMD, as well as Apple's new iPhone processors, are expected to help TSMC avoid a further decline in factory utilization rate in the second quarter.