GoKawiil
Tech News
TSMC posted its highest-ever monthly revenue in August, totaling NT$514.8 billion ($16.35 billion), a 53.3% increase from a year earlier and 10.1% higher than July. This marks the fourth consecutive month of revenue growth for the chipmaker, fueled by sustained demand for AI-related chips.
Apple introduced its first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, at a Cupertino event, featuring a 7.6-inch inner folding screen and a 5.4-inch outer display, both protected by Ceramic Shield 2. The device runs on Apple's new A20 Pro chip built on TSMC's 2nm process, with a titanium frame and dual rear cameras including a 48MP main sensor and 12MP telephoto lens.
OpenAI Korea's general manager Harrison Kim said the company has made significant progress working with Samsung Electronics on next-generation chip development and production. This suggests OpenAI could source future AI accelerators from both Samsung Foundry and TSMC, rather than relying solely on TSMC as it does for its current Jalapeño inference chip built with Broadcom.
ASML is developing a larger 12-inch mask format for its next-generation High-NA EUV lithography systems, letting them print chips as large as those made with current EUV tools. The company expects a pilot line by 2031 and high-volume production by 2033, with CTO Marco Pieters saying the shift could boost system productivity by 40% if the industry adopts it together.
Samsung Electronics and TSMC have committed to deploying ASML's newest high-numerical-aperture EUV lithography systems, machines that can cost up to $400 million each. Both companies join Intel in adopting a related technical change expected to increase chip output on these machines by roughly 40 percent. Samsung plans to use the tools for memory chip production by 2028, while TSMC intends to apply the technology to its most advanced chips for customers like AMD, Apple, Nvidia and Qualcomm.
TSMC has confirmed plans to bring High-NA EUV lithography, using 0.55 numerical aperture optics, into high-volume manufacturing by 2030, likely for its A10 or A11 nodes. The company plans to use standard 6x6-inch photomasks initially, followed by a pilot line for larger 6x12-inch photomasks in 2031, aiming for full production with those masks by 2033.
ASML announced that Samsung and TSMC will follow Intel in adopting its High NA extreme ultraviolet lithography systems, with Samsung targeting DRAM production by 2028 and TSMC planning advanced node use by 2030. The three chipmakers also launched a joint effort to shift from six-inch to 12-inch photomasks, a change expected to reach advanced production by 2033.
Samsung and TSMC, the world's two largest chipmakers, have confirmed plans to deploy ASML's High NA extreme ultraviolet lithography systems, machines that can cost roughly $400 million each and etch finer circuit patterns onto silicon wafers. Samsung plans to use the tools for DRAM production starting in 2028 and expand its scaling roadmap by 2030, while TSMC expects broader adoption driven by increasingly complex transistor designs needed for AI chips. Both companies join Intel as customers of the technology.
Arm has introduced its next-generation Neoverse CSS N4 semi-custom compute subsystem, codenamed Ranger, built on TSMC's N3P process node. The platform allows cloud and chip partners to configure between 8 and 128 Arm Neoverse N4 cores per die, clocked up to 3.8 GHz, with support for DDR5 or LPDDR6 memory, up to 256 MB of L3 cache, and 128 lanes of PCIe 7/6 or CXL 4.0.
TSMC executive Cliff Hou revealed that the chipmaker's projected need for semiconductor manufacturing tools rose from a baseline estimate late last year to 1.5 times that figure by Q1 and 1.9 times by July, driven by new fabs in Taiwan and the U.S. plus upgrades to existing plants. Despite the near-doubling in equipment requirements, TSMC's 2026 capital expenditure guidance has only risen from an initial $52-56 billion range toward roughly $64 billion, a far smaller percentage increase.
Apple unveiled two new chips, the 2nm M6 and the quad-die M5 Ultra, alongside refreshed Mac desktops built around them. The M6 combines super, performance and efficiency cores for the first time and adds a Neural Accelerator to each GPU core, while the M5 Ultra fuses two M5 Max chips into one processor with up to 36 CPU cores, 80 GPU cores and 512GB of unified memory. Neither desktop gets major new features beyond faster specs and higher pricing.
A Weibo leak from Digital Chat Station claims Qualcomm's upcoming flagship chip, model SM8975, will be branded Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and built on TSMC's 2nm process with two prime cores at 5.01GHz plus three performance and three efficiency cores, paired with an Adreno 850 GPU. The same leak details MediaTek's rival Dimensity 9600 Pro, also on 2nm, using dual 4.55GHz cores alongside performance and efficiency cores and a Mali G2 Ultra GPU.