News Rapidus: We Want to Serve TSMC's Customers, But We Won't Be Like TSMC

[Admin]

Rapidus is looking for select global partners requiring leading-edge fabrication technologies, but it does not plan to become TSMC and serve hundreds of customers.

Rapidus: We Want to Serve TSMC's Customers, But We Won't Be Like TSMC : Read more

 

[ikjadoon]

Good luck? TSMC serving hundreds / thousands of fabless firms isn't a con per se. It helps amortize the obscene cost of R&D. What, is Rapidus going to recoup all that R&D in the years that 2nm is the leading edge?

No. Once 2nm is cheap enough, they'll likely find enormous profits by allowing more cost-sensitive firms to fabricate on 2nm. Some money is better than no money.

TL;DR: You don't build an apartment building and then when the building is old, you demolish it and start over. No, you reduce prices and get more customers.

It'll all depend on Rapidus' execution. If they can guarantee higher-quantity / higher-perf / lower-power, yeah, the world over will be pining to get fabbed there.

If not? Welcome to the world of "a few steps behind" TSMC, aka Intel & Samsung.

 

[anonymousdude]

Good luck? TSMC serving hundreds / thousands of fabless firms isn't a con per se. It helps amortize the obscene cost of R&D. What, is Rapidus going to recoup all that R&D in the years that 2nm is the leading edge?

No. Once 2nm is cheap enough, they'll likely find enormous profits by allowing more cost-sensitive firms to fabricate on 2nm. Some money is better than no money.

TL;DR: You don't build an apartment building and then when the building is old, you demolish it and start over. No, you reduce prices and get more customers.

It'll all depend on Rapidus' execution. If they can guarantee higher-quantity / higher-perf / lower-power, yeah, the world over will be pining to get fabbed there.

If not? Welcome to the world of "a few steps behind" TSMC, aka Intel & Samsung.

I read it as Rapidus trying to both hedge their investment and as an issue with what their capacity will be. If you can sign a massive multinational then you guarantee a revenue stream for at least a couple of years. Two, what is their capacity going to look like? Even if Rapidus came out and said we want to be like TSMC, they just won't have the same capacity nor the trailing edge nodes to serve hundreds/thousands of fabless customers. So I think it's more a matter of we can't be TSMC in ther short term, more so than we don't want to be like TSMC. Naturally wrapped up in some pleasant sounding corporate messaging.