Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Rolf Bulk: Thank you for taking my question. This quarter, you’re also using the legacy node 16 and 28-nanometer in particular, were down around 15% to 20% Q-on-Q. And my question is, were there any particular end markets that caused this decline? And how do you think about the recovery of those legacy nodes? Should we still expect recovery in the fourth quarter of this year? Or is that more 2024 event? Thank you.

Jeff Su: Okay. So Rolf’s first question is looking on the mature nodes, such as 16 and 20, 18 nodes – he notes, sorry, that those all saw sequential declines in the second quarter. So his question is, what is driving this – what end markets are driving this decline? And what is the expectation for this in the second half?

C. C. Wei: Well, let me answer that question. The mature nodes wafer actually or the product actually try to be convenient for the smartphone or for the PC market or for the HPC. So while the total unit of smartphone become weaker and PC become weaker. So it’s a high – the leading-edge technology node being also demand dropping and so the mature node. That’s together. Did I answer your question?

Rolf Bulk: Yes. Thank you. That’s very clear. My second question, maybe you focus on cohorts and advanced packaging in general and also the weakness that you see in the remainder of your business. Could you maybe comment on the percentage of your CapEx spending that will go towards leading nodes, specialty nodes and packaging this year compared to last year?

Jeff Su: Okay. So Rolf second question is for 2023 CapEx, which our CFO has said towards the lower end of the 32 to 36%range, can we give a breakdown between leading-edge, specialty technologies and then the packaging testing, mass-making and others.

Wendell Huang: Leading-edge technology accounts for between 70% to 80% of our total CapEx in the year, mature specialty technology between 10% to 20%, and the remaining are split between advanced packaging and EBO and some others, okay?

Jeff Su: Thank you, Rolf.

Rolf Bulk: Perfect. Thank you.

Jeff Su: All right. Operator, let’s move on to the next participant, please.

Operator: Next one, we have Sunny Lin from UBS.

Sunny Lin: Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. So my number one question is on 3-nanometer ramp-up. As we are going through third quarters on mass production, I think you must have a pretty good visibility for customer engagement for the coming few years. So I wonder now how should we think about the overall ramp of 3-nanometer if we compare with 5 and 7-nanometer? If we look at 5, you reach towards 18% of revenue in the second year of mass production and then about 24% of revenue in the third year. Whereas for 3-nanometer, I think the concerns by smartphone customers have been on cost. Then the question will be if HPC is significant enough to still drive a meaningful pickup of 3-nanometer. And so it will be greatly appreciate if you could provide us any kind of thoughts. Thank you very much.

Jeff Su: Okay. So Sunny’s first question is on the ramp of 3-nanometer. Her question really, I believe, is coming from a percentage of revenue contribution. She wants to know how is the ramp-up 3-nanometer? And then can it contribute to the revenue like N5, N7 in the past?

C. C. Wei: Yes. As I just said, we believe N3 will be a long-lasting and large node for TSMC. Now in terms of percentage, I think it’s sometimes less important because our overall corporate revenue is much, much bigger these days than before. So I think you should also take that into consideration. But dollar amount-wise, it’s a much bigger node.

Wendell Huang: And C.C. also said it’s a multiyear strong structural demand. Yes. I am sorry, okay.

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