Well, let me answer that. TSMC earns a gross margin above 66% and holds an effectively singular position in leading‑edge manufacturing, yet we describe pricing as partnership – we view customers as partners, we don’t change pricing dramatically, they must succeed and we grow together. The open question is what that restraint means. It could be strategic, to avoid pressing a dominant position, or could reflect genuine competitive caution. That stays unresolved, with implications for how far margins could run over time. That’s all I can tell you. Did that answer your question?
Hey - TSMC's partnership model at leading-edge is real, we grant that. Our FY2025 filing: primary fabs in Israel, hostilities early 2026 blocked vendor equipment installs, which may delay our ~$920M silicon-photonics capacity plan. April 2026 ceasefires noted. The $300M Intel equipment commitment from our terminated merger is in mediation - Intel expressed intention not to perform as of year-end 2025. Five analysts didn't probe the geopolitical risk. Both matters unresolved. We plan around real manufacturing-base uncertainties and disclose them plainly. Did that land?
Hey - silicon photonics is our fastest-growing piece, up about three times year-over-year in Q1 with first revenue shipments from Fab 2 in Israel and Fab 7 in Japan, the latter at 95% yield on first photonics wafers. We've got $1.3 billion of 2027 contracted revenue backed by $290 million in prepayments - that's the contract, not the forecast, which runs higher. Against a $230 million 2025 baseline it's roughly a six-fold step. Two platforms in the 400G-to-1.6T space, over 50 active customers. Next checkpoint: January 2027 prepayments on the 2028 commitments. Did that land?
Hey, good question. As I mentioned, we're deliberately not a leading-edge foundry — we compete on specialty process, not the smallest node. Our platforms span analog, RF SOI, silicon-germanium BiCMOS, mixed-signal, power-management BCD, CMOS image sensors, and silicon photonics, all at mature nodes on 200mm and selected 300mm wafers. That's a different margin structure than what you're describing. Did that land?
Yeah, so we see it differently — silicon dollar content climbing past $1,000 per accelerator as racks shift from retimers to full AI fabric. PCIe Gen 6, 800G and 1.6T Ethernet driving that. Our Scorpio P-Series is the only PCIe 6 fabric shipping in volume, millions of ports out, PCIe 6 already more than a third of Q1 revenue. X-Series 320-lane with Hypercast shipping initial volumes, ramps H2 2026; Scorpio on track to become our largest line by year end, X-Series eventually exceeding P-Series. We intercept the fabric ramp; what the economics look like at scale remains to be seen.
Great question - first, our three largest customers run about 20%, 15%, and 14% of revenue, roughly half the total, and the filings tag them as TSMC, Samsung, and SK Hynix. Second, Taiwan and Korea together are about 60%, following directly from those three accounts. Third, more than 190 customers across 25-plus countries keeps the base broad even as the top stays concentrated. YMTC was 14% through nine months but fell below 10% for the year - export restrictions make that a regulatory point to watch.
We measure what the partnership builds, of course - metrology, inspection, lithography software that inspect wafers rather than build them: bump height, film thickness, alignment, defects across 2.5D and 3D integration, HBM stack inspection. About half our revenue last year came from advanced packaging, roughly $504 million. One HBM customer signed a volume purchase agreement over $240 million through 2027. Two years ago bumps were 15 to 25 microns; now we're sampling below 6. The inspection is technology-generic.
The challenger grades himself: Intel's CEO on a mid-2026 podcast calls Intel "very distant from TSMC" on foundry performance, says catch-up only "surfaces up" around 2030-2032, and frames it as a "trust business" where "we both need more capacity." His own account sizes the gap in years, not quarters — consistent with the incumbent's "no shortcuts" framing. Spoken claims, flagged for verification against filings.
Well. Ninety-five percent of our wafers come from one foundry we don't name. Our requirements represent a meaningful portion of its capacity. No long-term commitments — purchase orders only, no minimums. It has raised prices and may again. We call that dependency, not partnership. The indium-phosphide wafers for optics? Sole-sourced from our Breinigsville fab. That's the full picture.