The chief executive of TSMC, C.C. Wei, has told shareholders that the chip giant is working to meet surging demand for AI chips and to avoid further disruption in the semiconductor supply chain.
Reuters reported that after the shareholder meeting, held in the Taiwanese city of Hsinchu, Wei said: “Customer demand is so high, and we can only support so much. We are already working very hard.”
“We are doing our best to ensure TSMC does not become a bottleneck.”
Wei indicated that he would like to see TSMC raise its prices for customers when asked if it would do so, adding that it would not replicate the sharp price rises imposed by some memory manufacturers.
“I envy their 80% gross margins, but I would never do that,” he said.
TSMC is the largest chipmaker by some margin, dominating the Taiwanese semiconductor sector, which produces over 90 per cent of all the world’s advanced semiconductors according to the US Department of Commerce.
In recent weeks, chip giants have made commitments to ramp up production and investment in manufacturing to keep up with AI-driven semiconductor demand. On 26 May, Nvidia’s chief executive Jensen Huang pledged to invest between $100 and $150 billion per year in Taiwan.
On 2 June Chey Tae-won, the chairman of SK Hynix, said the firm would double wafer capacity over the next five years to keep up with demand, adding that it would partner with more companies in Taiwan in addition to TSMC.
