Apple chip builder TSMC expected to see record Q3 on 'A10' chips

Chip manufacturer TSMC on Monday posted revenues of just under $6.89 billion for its second quarter, and is anticipated to do even better in the third quarter thanks to growing shipments of Apple "A10" processors for upcoming iPhones and iPads.

Q2 revenues were up 9 percent sequentially, and 8 percent year-over-year, DigiTimes reported. Market forecasts quoted by the Commercial Times meanwhile suggest that because of the A10, TSMC's Q3 revenues could hit record levels, between $7.14 billion and $7.45 billion.

Apple is thought to be relying on TSMC and its 16-nanometer FinFET process for most or all A10 chip orders, marginalizing Samsung, which was once the sole producer of A-series chips but has increasingly lost orders as Apple tries to reduce its dependence. The A9 processor in the iPhone 6s line is produced by both TSMC and Samsung, for instance.

TSMC's recent quarter bucks a trend seen by other Apple suppliers, including Foxconn, which have reported weak orders even when compared with usual seasonal slumps.

If it is the sole producer of A10 chips, though, TSMC stands to generate large sums off of Apple orders in the run up to the launch of the "iPhone 7" and new iPad models, though there have been few rumors about the latter. New iPhones should ship sometime in September if Apple follows its normal release patterns.

16 Comments

ericthehalfbee 4489 comments · 13 Years

About 8 years ago

Funny when Foxconn sees a drop in revenue and people equate it with Apple while forgetting just how many companies they manufacture for. Blame everything on Apple.

jakeb 562 comments · 17 Years

Looking forward to seeing how this means that Apple is doomed.

jakeb said:

Looking forward to seeing how this means that Apple is doomed.

"The A10 is still using 2 cores while others have moved on to 4 or 8. Apple needs to add more cores or they'll get left behind."

brakken 687 comments · 11 Years

Suck it, samsung. Suck it up.

michael scrip 1916 comments · 13 Years

ericthehalfbee said:

Funny when Foxconn sees a drop in revenue and people equate it with Apple while forgetting just how many companies they manufacture for. Blame everything on Apple.

True... Foxconn builds stuff for lots of companies.

But you also need to consider how many units Apple orders from Foxconn.

If Apple sells 50 million iPhones... it's safe to say that Foxconn builds 50 million iPhones. And Foxconn's revenue is high because of them.

Now contrast that with low-volume "no name" companies who order less than 50,000 units from Foxconn. Imagine the money that is spent retooling the factory to produce a product that doesn't have a big order... plus the training for the workers... etc.

It doesn't even have to be a "no name" company. We know Foxconn builds stuff for Nintendo, right? Well Nintendo isn't ordering 50 million Nintendo DS from Foxconn.

I'd argue that Apple is one of Foxconn's most important clients... both in volume and revenue. So yeah... Foxconn can be affected if Apple reduces their order. Much more than any other client.