🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

TSMC moves ahead while Intel and Samsung slow their plans

• Intel has said it may drop its 1.4nm-class process, called 14A, if it cannot land a large outside customer 1.
• Part of the strain comes from the price of High-NA EUV lithography tools (advanced chipmaking machines used to print extremely small circuit patterns), which cost about US$380 million each 1.
• Samsung has reportedly moved its 1.4nm mass production target to 2029 while it works on better yields for its 2nm process, meaning a higher share of usable chips 2.
• Against that backdrop, TSMC has started a new 1.4nm plant in Taiwan and aims for mass production in the second half of 2028 3.

AI demand lifts revenue and gives TSMC room to spend

• Demand for AI and high-performance computing chips is helping pay for the next wave of manufacturing technology 4.
• TSMC’s second-quarter 2025 revenue rose 44% from a year earlier, and gross margin reached 59% 3.
• That profit supports 2025 capital spending of US$38 billion to US$42 billion, which lets TSMC spend more than rivals on future nodes such as 1.4nm 3.
• Taiwan has also passed a law that keeps the most advanced chipmaking technology on the island, with overseas fabs (semiconductor factories) limited to one generation behind, or N-1 3.