• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

TSMC’s 3nm Supply Runs Short Amid Huge AI Demand: NVIDIA, AMD, Consider Raising Chip Prices

Bernoulli

M2 slut
Ready for next-gen GPUs price hike?


The AI industry is evolving rapidly, which has prompted a massive need for relevant resources. TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is deemed responsible for most of the industry's semiconductor needs, and customers like Apple, Qualcomm, NVIDIA, and AMD depend upon the Taiwan giant for their respective chip products. Due to this, it is now being reported that IC design companies are opting for considerable price increases since TSMC's supply and demand chain is now unbalanced, given that their high-end 3nm process has witnessed gigantic demand.

 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Ready for next-gen GPUs price hike?


The AI industry is evolving rapidly, which has prompted a massive need for relevant resources. TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is deemed responsible for most of the industry's semiconductor needs, and customers like Apple, Qualcomm, NVIDIA, and AMD depend upon the Taiwan giant for their respective chip products. Due to this, it is now being reported that IC design companies are opting for considerable price increases since TSMC's supply and demand chain is now unbalanced, given that their high-end 3nm process has witnessed gigantic demand.


All according to plan!
 

GreatnessRD

Member
China has not taken back Taiwan just yet...
Let us pray they don't, too.

And far as the topic goes, Next-Gen GPU were gonna go up anyway. Folks have shown these companies they're willingly to pay almost anything to get these products. Jacket Man Jensen could slap an Nvidia sticker on a trashcan and charge 2k. Somebody is going to buy it.*

*Oh wait, he did. It's called the RTX 3050 and RTX 4060, lulz
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
But console chips are also made by TSMC.

True, but due to the amount sold the increase of the price isn't going to be as much. It's all about scale. Maybe the PS6 will be $600 at launch, but I'm expecting the Nvidia 6090 to be $2000 a launch.
 

winjer

Gold Member
True, but due to the amount sold the increase of the price isn't going to be as much. It's all about scale. Maybe the PS6 will be $600 at launch, but I'm expecting the Nvidia 6090 to be $2000 a launch.

The xx90 GPUs are more expensive just for some random reason.
They have a much bigger die, which reduces the amount of dies per wafer and yields.
They also have more vram, which is also faster.
And they also have a beefier and more expensive power delivery and PCB.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
It's interesting how they rarely consider increasing capacity in response to high demand.
Easier said then done. Although who knows how easy it is to increase chip making machines.

Easiest way to increase production is add more shifts (ie. midnight shift assuming there's people to hire to do middle of the night jobs).

If all shifts are maxed out then adding more machines can take a while. I remember my last company was thinking about adding capacity (they were already maxed out with 24H production), and the supply chain guys said it could take 10 months to add more capital machinery, test it, and hire/train more people to run it. And this wasnt techie precision products. Just your typical crap you see at grocery stores and Walmart selling for $10.
 
Last edited:

MikeM

Gold Member
The xx90 GPUs are more expensive just for some random reason.
They have a much bigger die, which reduces the amount of dies per wafer and yields.
They also have more vram, which is also faster.
And they also have a beefier and more expensive power delivery and PCB.
You also need to factor in the increase in margins that Nvidia will want. Almost 80% margins per last quarter and will only continue to increase as daddy Jensen can command whatever price he wants and the market will pay it.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Easier said then done. Although who knows how easy it is to increase chip making machines.

Easiest way to increase production is add more shifts (ie. midnight shift assuming there's people to hire to do middle of the night jobs).

If all shifts are maxed out then adding more machines can take a while. I remember my last company was thinking about adding capacity (they were already maxed out with 24H production), and the supply chain guys said it could take 10 months to add more capital machinery, test it, and hire/train more people to run it).
I get what you're saying, but there's definitely been enough time in the last 4 years since chip shortages started impacting literally everything to expand capacity and help prevent this kind of thing. It's not like this is a brand new problem.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I get what you're saying, but there's definitely been enough time in the last 4 years since chip shortages started impacting literally everything to expand capacity and help prevent this kind of thing. It's not like this is a brand new problem.
Yup.

They can also play the F'em and let's max out the pricing strategy with gimped supply and customers fighting for it.
 
Last edited:

Roxkis_ii

Member
Now this is an aera where we need some competition. The fact the world is dependent on one company for advance chips is a disaster waiting to happen.
 

Klosshufvud

Member
The people who jumped on the 4nm wagon will be eating good for half a decade on. The land of diminishing returns is hitting hard.
 
And yet I keep hearing video game podcasters tell me that consoles will be going away and everyone will be gaming on the cloud and on PCs. REALLY?! With prices going up like this?
I find that a little contradictory, bc if gaming in the near future is right in the CLOUD, why the need to buy a power machine then?. You can have just a little device with high speed internet connection hooked to a display and you save a good thousands. The platform providers will have to spend millions in order to provide their services. not us. lol.
 
Last edited:

nush

Member
I get what you're saying, but there's definitely been enough time in the last 4 years since chip shortages started impacting literally everything to expand capacity and help prevent this kind of thing. It's not like this is a brand new problem.

In manufacturing “Just make more” isn’t realistic. There’s usually a gating process or item that can’t be overcome. That’s all we can get and that’s how long it takes, basically.

Say just add more machines, well they cost millions so how long will it be until a factory sees ROI on that. If they “just make more” then the prices stay low and that will be a long time.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
In manufacturing “Just make more” isn’t realistic. There’s usually a gating process or item that can’t be overcome. That’s all we can get and that’s how long it takes, basically.

Say just add more machines, well they cost millions so how long will it be until a factory sees ROI on that. If they “just make more” then the prices stay low and that will be a long time.
I didn't suggest they "just do" anything. This has been a trend for four years. Seems like they can take some of the money from inflated prices that are being charged due to their control of supply and take care of the capacity issues that limit supply. With the billions in profit taking that's been happening since covid I'm positive they won't have issues with ROI if they build more fabs. I'm not going to cry for them because their machines that earn them billions cost millions.
 

nush

Member
I didn't suggest they "just do" anything. This has been a trend for four years. Seems like they can take some of the money from inflated prices that are being charged due to their control of supply and take care of the capacity issues that limit supply. With the billions in profit taking that's been happening since covid I'm positive they won't have issues with ROI if they build more fabs. I'm not going to cry for them because their machines that earn them billions cost millions.
OK, long answer.

https://www.jabil.com/blog/global-chip-shortages.html#:~:text=What's%20Behind%20the%20Ongoing%20Global,continues%20to%20be%20extremely%20disrupted.
 
Top Bottom