- Reaction score
- 1,678
The recent increase in wafer quotes by TSMC, Samsung Foundry, GlobalFoundries, SMIC, UMC, and other contract chipmakers, particularly for chips made using mature nodes, will soon have a more serious impact on the price of actual hardware, researchers at Counterpoint claim. That includes cell phones and a broad range of everyday consumer hardware, with the expected price hikes being severe enough that analysts expect most consumers to be forced to buy lower-end hardware.
Modern PCs and smartphones usually contain one or two key chips (CPU, GPU, SoC) made using the most advanced chip tech, like a leading-edge or advanced node. But they also feature tens of logic chips made with mainstream/mature nodes (older chip tech).
The foundries, which make the actual chips, have already increased pricing for their customers. However, most chip designers and other firms that make the finished products didn't pass on the price hikes to their customers to keep prices of their entry-level and mainstream products stable so they don't scare off price-sensitive customers. While this didn't happen with graphics cards and CPUs (some of the SKUs simply went missing), many devices (smartphones, inexpensive notebooks, etc.) have basically maintained their standard MSRPs during the shortage. That's about to end.
With the recent hikes of quotes by TSMC and other foundries, the cumulative cost increases for some chips from 2020 to 2022 will be 30%, or higher. A 30% increase is impossible not to pass up the supply chain as margins are already rather thin and naturally the company's don't want to lose money. Counterpoint now expects the chip designers to increase their prices to OEMs, which will now filter down to the end products in 2022.
www.tomshardware.com
Modern PCs and smartphones usually contain one or two key chips (CPU, GPU, SoC) made using the most advanced chip tech, like a leading-edge or advanced node. But they also feature tens of logic chips made with mainstream/mature nodes (older chip tech).
The foundries, which make the actual chips, have already increased pricing for their customers. However, most chip designers and other firms that make the finished products didn't pass on the price hikes to their customers to keep prices of their entry-level and mainstream products stable so they don't scare off price-sensitive customers. While this didn't happen with graphics cards and CPUs (some of the SKUs simply went missing), many devices (smartphones, inexpensive notebooks, etc.) have basically maintained their standard MSRPs during the shortage. That's about to end.
With the recent hikes of quotes by TSMC and other foundries, the cumulative cost increases for some chips from 2020 to 2022 will be 30%, or higher. A 30% increase is impossible not to pass up the supply chain as margins are already rather thin and naturally the company's don't want to lose money. Counterpoint now expects the chip designers to increase their prices to OEMs, which will now filter down to the end products in 2022.
TSMC Price Hikes to Result in Higher Retail Pricing For Pretty Much Everything
Chip shortage should last until mid-2023
