TSMC claims it will have close to 100% of 28nm market this year

TSMC Chairman and CEO Morris Chang said on Friday that TSMC will produce nearly 100% of the chips produced using the 28nm process this year. This announcement has analysts believing that TSMC has finally reached the long rumored deal with Apple to replace Samsung as a major supplier of Ax chips. With shipments of 28nm chips expected to triple in 2013, we've already told you that the company plans on pouring $9 billion into capital expenditures in  2013 with that figure rising the next year as the 20nm and 16nm manufacturing processes start to roll out.

Water cooler buzz has TSMC already producing trial batches of the Apple A6X processor currently used in the fourth-generation Apple iPad. The processors in current units are produced by Samsung. Fierce patents battles in court between the Cupertino based Apple and the Korean based Samsung have turned the two companies into modern day Hatfield and McCoys. And the feud extends to the marketplace where the Apple iPhone 5 is challenged by the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Samsung GALAXY Note II. As a result of this bad blood, Apple has been looking to source some of the parts provided by Samsung, with other manufacturers.

As the result of a possible deal with Apple, there is talk that TSMC is about to build a foundry in the U.S. There is some talk that a mystery plant code named "Project Azalea," is actually a chip manufacturing plant that will be built by Apple and run by TSMC. While the rumors suggest that New York, California, Texas, and Oregon are battling to host the facility, TSMC denies any Apple involvement in the foundry.

TSMC revenues are about to get a shot in the arm from the expansion of the 28nm process. In 2012, $2.1 billion, or 12 percent of TSMC's yearly revenue came from 28nm chips. That figure should soar to $6.2 billion in 2013.

source: ChinaTimes (translated), TheNextWeb via AppleInsider