TSMC urgently urges customers to place orders, N2 production capacity will be sold out in the next two years

TSMC has recently notified customers to book orders for the N2 process as early as possible because most of its production capacity until the end of 2027 has been booked in advance, and the delivery cycle for the remaining capacity is as long as six quarters.This means that even if the production capacity can be allocated smoothly, it may take 12 months for customers to get the finished chips from the start of production, which brings considerable challenges to product planning.

Even NVIDIA, TSMC's number one customer, has not been able to completely avoid this round of capacity constraints, although its priority is obviously higher than other small and medium-sized customers.

Of course, delivery time is not completely inelastic. If customers are willing to pay a higher price, they can still seek expedited orders, but TSMC cannot guarantee the delivery time for temporary orders.

In response to continued high demand, TSMC approved an investment plan totaling US$44.962 billion early last month to build new wafer fabs and upgrade existing production capacity. It is also an important part of its record capital expenditure plan for this year.