From many years ago, AMD and GF parted ways, until recently Apple and Google have successively chosen self-developed processors.
Taking the 14nm process era as a watershed, the global semiconductor industry has gradually completed the secondary vertical division of labor in the three subdivisions of design, foundry, and packaging and testing.
Semiconductor chips are known as the cornerstone of technological development, and this change will also affect the trend of the global technology industry.
Industry closure is no longer feasible
The semiconductor industry originated in the United States in the 1950s, and until the rise of the microcomputer wave in the 1990s, Intel successfully bet on the rapid rise of microprocessors.
To make chips profitable, they must rely on large-scale mass production to reduce costs. At that time, the accumulation of the US semiconductor industry was significantly ahead of the world, so chip companies formed a one-stop industrial closed loop.
This highly vertical closed-loop industry lasted for decades until AMD and GF parted ways.
Vertical division of labor meets the trend
AMD put aside GF, which has suffered substantial losses for years, so that it has enough funds to focus on research and development, and hand over it to TSMC’s more advanced OEM.
Relying on TSMC’s more advanced 7nm process, AMD’s successful counterattack can be seen as a sign that the semiconductor chip industry is facing another vertical segmentation.
Foundry is a gold swallowing behemoth, which is well known in the industry. Therefore, the fab independently accepts more brand orders to increase the utilization rate of the production line, thereby reducing costs and creating profits.
TSMC started production of the 7nm process in 2018 to achieve a production capacity of over 1 billion chips. The higher the yield and production capacity, the lower the cost of a single chip, and the vertical advantages of wafer foundry segmentation.
Apple’s self-research is only the beginning
The world will stay together for a long time, and Apple will finally fly solo this year. Such a thing could not become a reality 5 years ago, it is the continuous improvement of TSMC to provide the possibility of Apple’s innovation.
At the same time, it is sufficient to prove that the secondary vertical division of labor in the three major areas of the semiconductor industry design, manufacturing, and packaging and testing is a choice that conforms to the trend.
TSMC has the industry’s most advanced mass-produced 5nm process, while Apple has the industry’s best ARM chip design capabilities. The combination of the two makes the Apple M1 a blockbuster.
Combining power to accelerate the industrial iteration and technological innovation is the charm of the second vertical division of labor in the semiconductor industry, and Apple’s self-developed M1 processor is just the beginning.
Vertical division of labor breaks the siege
The wafer factory is like a city, once a strong barrier, now those who are affected by it want to escape, and the gold prospectors outside want to rush in.
Only by constantly entering and exiting can we step on the high threshold and allow more fresh blood to be injected into the industry that has been dry for many years.
Following Apple, Google announced last week that it will also develop its own CPU, and there will be more in the future.
