Equity Long-Short, Semiconductors, Fabricated Knowledge

Douglas O'Laughlin

Equity Long-Short, Semiconductors

Fabricated Knowledge

Learn more about the world's most important manufactured product. Meaningful insight, timely analysis, and an occasional investment idea.

Equity Bottom-Up

Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) / Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>TSMC started this season’s earnings with a strong result. Shares rallied immensely on this print, and it’s justified. In almost every metric, TSMC came out ahead.</li>
<li>
TSMC had a revenue, operating income, and gross margin beat and guided above the street.
</li>
<li>
Now let’s break out revenue by node and platform for a further look into the results of the world’s largest foundry.
</li>
</ul>


TSMC started this season’s earnings with a strong result. Shares rallied immensely on this print, and it’s justified. In almost every metric, TSMC came out ahead.

TSMC had a revenue, operating income, and gross margin beat and guided above the street.


Now let’s break out revenue by node and platform for a further look into the results of the world’s largest foundry.



TSMC, SMCI, Texas Instruments, AWE, ASML, and LRCX

Asia and Global Semiconductor and Tech Research

Andrew Lu

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul>
<li>Continuous weaknesses to be seen in industrial and general non-AI server semi demand starting 3Q23 and lasting into 1Q24 and some weaknesses in digital consumer semi demand starting 4Q23.</li>
<li>Memory semiconductor vendors see strengths in 4Q23 and continuous improvement in DRAM/NAND price in 1Q24.</li>
<li>We see a healthy mid single digit q/q and y/y decline on 4Q23 MOI but suggest vendors to avoid in next 1-2 months before they guide down the market.</li>
</ul>


Continuous weaknesses to be seen in industrial and general non-AI server semi demand starting 3Q23 and lasting into 1Q24 and some weaknesses in digital consumer semi demand starting 4Q23.
Memory semiconductor vendors see strengths in 4Q23 and continuous improvement in DRAM/NAND price in 1Q24.
We see a healthy mid single digit q/q and y/y decline on 4Q23 MOI but suggest vendors to avoid in next 1-2 months before they guide down the market.


First Run of Tech/Semis' Guidance Tells Us What Industries and Companies to Avoid

<ul>
<li>TSMC expects 2024 semi sector in recovery with 20-25% y/y growth itself, driven by AI customers. By controlling capex, more rooms to raise dividends but no growth for equipment vendors.</li>
<li>Faster ramp on N3, likely N3E, N3P than competitor's. TSMC expects 3nm from 6% of sales in 3Q23, 12.7% in 4Q23 to 15% in 2024, 3x y/y increase in 2024. </li>
<li>TSMC reports a nearly 30% q/q drop on IOT and consumer IC demand and sees weakness on 12" mature technology despite better demand 8" specialty technology. </li>
</ul>


TSMC expects 2024 semi sector in recovery with 20-25% y/y growth itself, driven by AI customers. By controlling capex, more rooms to raise dividends but no growth for equipment vendors.
Faster ramp on N3, likely N3E, N3P than competitor's. TSMC expects 3nm from 6% of sales in 3Q23, 12.7% in 4Q23 to 15% in 2024, 3x y/y increase in 2024. 
TSMC reports a nearly 30% q/q drop on IOT and consumer IC demand and sees weakness on 12" mature technology despite better demand 8" specialty technology. 


What Stories TSMC Investor Conference Telling Us About Customers, Supply Chains, and Competitors

<ul>
<li>What inning is AI in?</li>
<li>If <a href="https://www.fabricatedknowledge.com/p/lessons-from-history-the-rise-and" target="_blank" rel="noopener">history is a guide</a>, it’s hard to predict the twists and turns of a new market growing from nothing.</li>
<li>Here’s my humble attempt at estimating AI penetration and my thoughts on the run-rate business of AI models and industry structure.</li>
</ul>


What inning is AI in?
If history is a guide, it’s hard to predict the twists and turns of a new market growing from nothing.
Here’s my humble attempt at estimating AI penetration and my thoughts on the run-rate business of AI models and industry structure.


AI Industry Structure and Business Model: What Inning is It?

Semiconductor & Technology Specialist, Ingenuity

William Keating

Semiconductor & Technology Specialist

Ingenuity

Our focus is exclusively on in-depth research & consulting in the broader semiconductor industry. We focus on the key players, namely Intel, Micron, Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, NVIDIA, AMD, TSMC & Global Foundries - as well as some of the lesser known, but nonetheless critical, companies such as ASML (for EUV), Mellanox, Cavium, Xilinx etc. We specialise in their products, roadmaps, process technologies, competitive advantages & threats etc. We also help our clients understand the implications of new and emerging technologies, e.g. 3D X-Point, 3D NAND, Carbon Nanotubes, Autonomous Driving, Graphene, Silicon Photonics, Wafer-Level Optics, Artificial Intelligence, FPGA, GPU, ASIC etc. 

Semiconductor Analysis & Research

<h2>Summary</h2>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/11230" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:11230:1"></a>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/11230" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:11230:1">Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg Co</a> has dominated the foundry segment over the past two decades. With revenues of $33 billion in 2017, the company had a 56% share of the foundry market and was over five times the size of its nearest competitor, Globalfoundries. Under the visionary leadership of Morris Chang, TSMC effectively invented the fabless model. Originally mocked by former AMD CEO Gerry Sanders who once famously quipped that “real men own fabs”, the fabless model has evolved into a thriving ecosystem, one which has facilitated the meteoric rise of some of the biggest names in the semiconductor segment including <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/666" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:666:1">Apple</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/969" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:969:1">Qualcomm </a>and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/5891" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:5891:1">Nvidia</a>.  
TSMC’s success has been predicated upon the company's so-called Trinity of Strengths, namely process leadership, manufacturing excellence and customer trust. In today’s highly competitive foundry landscape, those strengths have never been more significant.
While the smartphone processor business has been central to TSMC's growth in recent years with Apple accounting for some 22% of revenues, the company is well positioned to diversify and benefit from high, secular growth trends in IoT, Automotive and AI acceleration. Even more significantly, TSMC is set to compete for the first time with Intel in the lucrative data center market by virtue of its role in manufacturing server chips for <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/19009" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:19009:1">Advanced Micro Devices</a> and a growing swathe of ARM-based server initiatives lead by none other than <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/409" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:409:1">Amazon</a>. 
Between 2006 and 2017, TSMC grew at a CAGR of 9.8% in NT$ terms, easily outpacing growth of both the broader semiconductor segment and its foundry peers. For the period 2019-2022, we model TSMC growing at a slightly lower CAGR of 8.36%, but nonetheless more than double the anticipated CAGR for the semiconductor segment as a whole.

Summary

Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg Co has dominated the foundry segment over the past two decades. With revenues of $33 billion in 2017, the company had a 56% share of the foundry market and was over five times the size of its nearest competitor, Globalfoundries. Under the visionary leadership of Morris Chang, TSMC effectively invented the fabless model. Originally mocked by former AMD CEO Gerry Sanders who once famously quipped that “real men own fabs”, the fabless model has evolved into a thriving ecosystem, one which has facilitated the meteoric rise of some of the biggest names in the semiconductor segment including Apple, Qualcomm and Nvidia.  
TSMC’s success has been predicated upon the company's so-called Trinity of Strengths, namely process leadership, manufacturing excellence and customer trust. In today’s highly competitive foundry landscape, those strengths have never been more significant.
While the smartphone processor business has been central to TSMC's growth in recent years with Apple accounting for some 22% of revenues, the company is well positioned to diversify and benefit from high, secular growth trends in IoT, Automotive and AI acceleration. Even more significantly, TSMC is set to compete for the first time with Intel in the lucrative data center market by virtue of its role in manufacturing server chips for Advanced Micro Devices and a growing swathe of ARM-based server initiatives lead by none other than Amazon. 
Between 2006 and 2017, TSMC grew at a CAGR of 9.8% in NT$ terms, easily outpacing growth of both the broader semiconductor segment and its foundry peers. For the period 2019-2022, we model TSMC growing at a slightly lower CAGR of 8.36%, but nonetheless more than double the anticipated CAGR for the semiconductor segment as a whole. 

A Bull Investment Case for TSMC (Summary Version)

United States

NVIDIA Corporation designs, develops, and markets three dimensional (3D) graphics processors and related software.  The Company's products provide interactive 3D graphics to the mainstream personal computer market.

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NVIDIA Corp (NVDA US)

TSMC, SMCI, Texas Instruments, AWE, ASML, and LRCX

Its the first week of earnings, and it's already a busy one. TSMC started this season’s earnings with a strong result. Shares rallied immensely on...

Fabricated Knowledge

First Run of Tech/Semis' Guidance Tells Us What Industries and Companies to Avoid

First Run of Tech/Semis' Guidance Tells Us What Industries and Companies to Avoid; Weaknesses to be seen in industrial, general non-AI server semi,...

Andrew Lu

What Stories TSMC Investor Conference Telling Us About Customers, Supply Chains, and Competitors

What Stories TSMC Investor Conference Telling Us About Customers, Supply Chains, and Competitors; TSMC expects 2024 semi sector in recovery with 20...

Andrew Lu

AI Industry Structure and Business Model: What Inning is It?

What inning is AI in? If history is a guide, it’s hard to predict the twists and turns of a new market growing from nothing...

Fabricated Knowledge

A Bull Investment Case for TSMC (Summary Version)

As we approach the 5 year anniversary of this SK original on TSMC, I'm quite proud of the how the analysis it contains has stood the test of time....

William Keating

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