Apple’s iPhone 8 just made this chip foundry chief a billionaire

by Daniel Petrov / Jul 13, 2017, 4:35 AM

Apple’s iPhone 8 just made this chip foundry chief a billionaire

Apple, in its constant efforts to move away from Samsung as components supplier, has tasked the production of its 2017 edition A11 chipset entirely to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). Its 86-year-old chairman Morris Chang has just become a billionaire in the process. Shares of TSMC have jumped 27% in a year, making his stake in the company valued at a cool $1 billion.

This upshot in the foundry's valuation comes on the wings of the extra iPhone 8 business that analysts are convinced will cause major increase in demand for iPhones overall this and the next year. TSMC has modern 10nm production process, and even a 7nm one is in the works for next year, so the company will likely be able to supply the tens of millions of chipsets that Apple requires each year. Both new iPad Pro models are equipped with A10X processors, which were recently discovered to be Apple's first 10nm chip available in a commercial product, and the A11 will also be built on the same node that offers smaller footprint, higher performance, and less power consumption. Hear, hear.

source: Bloomberg

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15 Comments

1. Tondern

Posts: 164; Member since: Feb 23, 2015

The higher battery drain on the 14nm chip from Samsung than the 16nm one from TSMC didn't sit well with mr. Cook, understandably so. That made Sammy invest billions upon billions on semiconductors and the 7nm technology. Competition ain't bad.

posted on Jul 13, 2017, 4:50 AM 0

2. piyath

Posts: 2445; Member since: Mar 23, 2012

After a couple of years Apple will move away the display business too from Samsung and when that day comes Samsung will only have the NAND storage business with Apple. After that Apple will surely move away even the NAND business too from them. This is called karma for blatantly copying someone and trying to steal their market share.

posted on Jul 13, 2017, 6:04 AM 0

3. theunspoken

Posts: 310; Member since: Jul 06, 2017

and soon people will realize they wasted lot of money on iProducts and slowly they will move away from apple

posted on Jul 13, 2017, 6:17 AM 0

4. janis

Posts: 397; Member since: Mar 10, 2014

seems like u did not get your iphone 7 yet, so much anger, competition is good for us - customers.

posted on Jul 13, 2017, 6:28 AM 0

5. Finalflash

Posts: 4063; Member since: Jul 23, 2013

Yea but it isn't good for iFans. If Apple doesn't get richer while people get poorer without any benefit to their consumers, then iFans consider that a personal loss.

posted on Jul 13, 2017, 7:48 AM 1

13. audibot

Posts: 649; Member since: Jan 26, 2017

apple will suck on the teet of samsung for another 10 years before being able to leave at that time tizen will be perfected and phones will be under the skin or implanted apple can't stop doing what it started and thats stealing everything there isn't a thing apple created just stole and copied or bought

posted on Jul 13, 2017, 11:17 PM 0

14. aksa123

Posts: 367; Member since: Jan 30, 2014

Samsung is a pretty good manufacturer, minus the infamous Grenade Note 7.

posted on Jul 14, 2017, 2:55 AM 0

6. Papa_Ji

Posts: 855; Member since: Jun 27, 2016

Samsung has much bigger client snapdragon.... Samsung has also started using Mediatek Soc, soon they will grab it's production from TSMC. TSMC will be the next IMAGINATION TECHNOLOGIES.

posted on Jul 13, 2017, 7:52 AM 1

10. AmashAziz

Posts: 2933; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

Which world do you live in?

posted on Jul 13, 2017, 5:33 PM 1

8. PhoneCritic

Posts: 1354; Member since: Oct 05, 2011

We hear this every year but what always transpires is that TSMC, LG display, Sharp etc.. all combined together always can't produce the volume Apple requires. So, what happens? Apple goes crawling back to Samsung for more capacity. I don't know when Apple will learn that both its has a symbiotic relationship with Samsung.

posted on Jul 13, 2017, 12:20 PM 0

11. AmashAziz

Apple knows that better than you. That's why Mr. Cook is a millionaire.

posted on Jul 13, 2017, 5:34 PM 0

15. PhoneCritic

More than a Millionaire a Millionaire several times over. However, again as a CEO you should know who in the industry has the capacity to produce the amount of widgets you need, at least one of your advisers should. that information vital and if the pattern is repeated every year maybe you should start to question your advisers or your self?

posted on Jul 14, 2017, 11:17 AM 0

16. AmashAziz

I already told you Apple knows this. What they are doing is trying to become independent, just like in their GPU department. You think Apple is stupid enough to not know their component demand can't be fulfilled by one manufacturer? This is called a business practise. Apple executives aren't errand boys to not know how to make some clean profit but not rely on others for the buck. Sooner or later, Apple is planning to part ways with Samsung and other brands. That's what it tries to do every year. And will keep doing it until it succeeds.