Stefan Mileschin

Taiwan's top three foundries are estimated at $9.96 billion in the first quarter of 2018 up 10.4 percent from last year.

According to Digitimes Research, TSMC,UMC and VIS have rode out a storm after the fruity cargo cult Apple cut orders for its iPhones, inventory adjustments at non-Apple device chipmakers.

TSMC will see revenues generated from 10nm process technology register a sequential decrease in the first quarter. Meanwhile, 28nm process rates at the major Taiwan-based foundries are set to slide on the quarter.

Taiwan's top three foundries are expected to see their combined revenues generated from 28nm and below process technologies decline 11.3 percent sequentially to account for 54.1 percent of the overall combined revenues in the first quarter of 2018, Digitimes Research said. The sales proportion will fall from 57 percent in the prior quarter.

In addition, TSMC is scheduled to enter volume production of 7nm chips in the first quarter of 2018 and revenues generated from the process technology will be driving the foundry's revenue growth in 2018.

Robust demand for AI applications, cryptocurrency mining ASICs, graphics chips and high-performance computing devices will be the new drivers of major Taiwan-based foundries' revenue growth in 2018. Digitimes Research forecasts that Taiwan's top-3 foundries will see their combined revenues increase 11.7 percent on year to $42.31 billion in 2018.

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