Wired
News from IT House, January 12, foreign media 9to5 Mac reported that the A14 chip is the first time Apple has used a 5-nanometer process. A new report today claims that Apple will occupy more than half of all 5nm chips, and will be far ahead of Samsung, which ranks third, with a 5nm share of about 5%.
Apple will also greatly affect Qualcomm’s 5nm chip share, which may account for 25% of total production.
The Counterpoint Research report points out that 2020 is a good year for chip manufacturers, and it may be the same in 2021.
“The foundry sector of the semiconductor industry achieved higher-than-expected revenue growth in 2020. With the supply of most manufacturers tightening around the world, we expect this momentum to continue in 2021 […] .
The technology migration of leading nodes (7nm and 5nm) seems to be accelerating to meet the needs of AI/GPU in 5G smartphones, game consoles and cloud servers.
In 2020, the revenue of the foundry industry will reach approximately US$82 billion, a year-on-year increase of 23%. Although the base figure in 2020 is high, it will maintain double-digit growth in 2021. We forecast a 12% year-on-year growth, and total revenue will reach US$92 billion. “
Looking specifically at the 5nm process, Counterpoint predicts that Apple will be the largest customer of the most advanced chips. Apple’s A14 chip has been manufactured using a 5nm process, and it is expected that this year’s iPhone 13 series phones will switch to an enhanced “5nm+” process, and then switch to 4nm next year.
“According to our estimates, the total 5nm wafer shipments in 2021 will account for 5% of the 12-inch wafers in the global foundry industry, which is higher than less than 1% in 2020. Apple is the largest 5nm wafer this year. Customers (all orders are to TSMC), including for iPhone (A14/A15) and newly released Apple products.”
Counterpoint expects Qualcomm to become the second largest customer for 5nm chips, partly due to Apple.
“As the iPhone 13 series may use its Snapdragon X60 modem, Qualcomm will become the second largest 5nm customer.”
However, US chip maker Qualcomm may not benefit from Apple’s order for a long time, because Apple is said to be close to its goal of developing its own modem.
IT Home is informed that the report claims that Samsung is 6-9 months behind Apple chip maker TSMC and reached 5%, thanks to the limited use of its own Exynos equipment and more supply to external customers such as Qualcomm.