14 DAY TRIAL // For a while, TSMC was internationally known for its troubles regarding the 40nm manufacturing process technology. Those issues directly impacted both NVIDIA's and AMD's performance on the graphics market and were very closely followed by the media. Later, the foundry got over its troubles and even set plans in motion for the expansion of 40nm capacity. Now, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company proudly announced that it performed especially well during the second quarter, financially at least.
Apparently, profits hit an all-time high during Q2. Revenues, for one, amounted to NT$104.96 billion, which translates into US$3.28 billion. On a sequential and yearly basis, this equates to a jump of 13.9 percent and 41.4 percent, respectively. Furthermore, in terms of profits, net income was of NT$40.28 billion, in other words US$1.26 billion. Compared to the first quarter, this sum is 19.7 percent higher. What's more, 72 percent of the foundry's wafer revenues were brought in by the more advanced process technologies. The 40nm node generated 16 percent, whereas the 90nm and the 65nm processes each contributed with 16 percent and 27 percent, respectively.
"Last year I told you that mainland Chinese sales had overtaken our Japanese sales. This year, I'm happily surprised that Japanese sales have grown enormously. This year, in spite of China's continued high growth, Japan's growth makes it a still bigger area than China in our sales," said Morris Chang, chairman and CEO of TSMC, at its investors' conference in Taipei.
During the third quarter, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company hopes to achieve total revenues of between NT$109 billion and NT$111 billion. In other words, this corresponds to between US$3.4 billion and US$3.47 billion. As for the long term, the 28nm process that will shortly start production will be followed by the 20nm node, set to be reached by the second half of 2012.