TSMC Seen As Only 20 nm ASIC Supplier to Apple in the Next 2 Years

Market analysts with Citigroup Global Markets Inc. see TSMC as being the only company able to supply chips built on the 20 nanometer silicon fabrication process to Apple, for its quad-core systems on chip (SoC). J.T. Hsu, a market research fellow with Citigroup points out that Apple began verifying TSMC's 20 nm manufacturing capabilities in August 2012, and could begin risk production (preliminary batches with accepted risk of low-yields) as early as by November 2012. If all goes well, mass production (high-yield) could begin by Q4 2013. TSMC could hike its capital expenditure to the range of US $11-12 billion in 2013-14.