Chip foundries play a vital role in the technology industry by converting CAD designs into actual silicon components that are integrated into computers, smartphones and other digital devices. Recent data confirms that the chip foundry business is booming and expanding. TrendForce’s latest research provides interesting insights into the chip foundry industry. The market intelligence company released its results for the third quarter of 2023, highlighting how collective industry revenue grew to $28.29 billion, a 7.9% increase compared to the previous quarter.
TSMC solidified its position as the industry leader with revenue of $17.24 billion and quarterly growth of 10.2%, according to TrendForce. Driven by growing demand in various electronics industries including personal computers and smartphones, the Asian company currently holds 57.9% of the entire chip foundry market.
TSMC recently began actually producing and shipping 3-nanometer chips for Apple devices. This business accounted for 6% of the company's total revenue, and other advanced manufacturing nodes accounted for nearly 60% of sales in the quarter.
Samsung continued to maintain its position as the second largest foundry company, with total revenue of US$3.69 billion, a month-on-month increase of 14.1%. The South Korean company emphasized the growing demand for advanced manufacturing processes, but TrendForce was careful to note that most of its revenue comes from Qualcomm's 5G products and OLED display integrated circuits based on the 28nm process.
GlobalFoundries held steady between the second and third quarters, reporting revenue of $1.85 billion (+0.4%). Chinese company SMIC ranked fifth, with revenue growing 3.8% month-on-month. Other smaller companies had mixed results, but one new company cracked the top ten.
Intel Foundry Services (Intel Foundry Services) is a new foundry business provided by the x86 chip maker to third-party companies. Its revenue was US$311 million, a significant increase of 34.1% quarter-on-quarter. The main driver of third-quarter results was chips produced for Amazon Web Services, which is expanding shipments of Graviton 4 and Trainium 2 system-in-packages.
TrendForce pointed out that with the positive performance of TSMC, Samsung, SMIC and IFS, the global foundry industry is currently on an upward trajectory. The fourth quarter of 2023 is expected to confirm the health of the industry, with increasing demand for smartphone components manufactured using cutting-edge and more "trivial" chip production nodes.