Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Sunny Lin: Sure. Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. So my first question is on the SoC ramp up and so if we look at the share revenue could be higher than 5-nanometer for the first year. But if we look at the sales contribution as a percentage of total sales, it’s actually a bit lower. And so I wonder for this year, perhaps there is some market issue. But looking into 2024 and 2025 based on your current customer engagement, should we model a faster ramp up into 2024 or 2025 or its overall ramp-up could be slower because of maybe customer schedule issues or planning? And if we think about the peak revenue contribution for 3-nanometer over time, do you think you will be able to reach 30% range, as N5 and N7. That’s the first question. Thank you.

Jeff Su: Okay. Sunny’s first question is on 3-nanometer. She notes 3-nanometer revenue is greater than 5-nanometer in its first year, but the revenue percentage contribution of mid-single digit is smaller or lower. So she’s wondering why is that. Is it because the market slowed down? Is it less customer adoption and interest? What is the reason behind that? And does that mean what is our expectation for that ramp to continue?

Wendell Huang: N3, N3E the number of tape-outs more than double that N5 in the first and the second year. So as a result, we expect the strong demand will continue in 2023, €˜24, €˜25 and beyond, for our N3 technologies driven by both the HPC and smartphone applications.

Jeff Su: Yes. Okay. Yes, does that answer…

Sunny Lin: Got it. Yes, partially. So any thoughts on the potential peak revenue contribution in the next couple of years?

C. C. Wei: Too early to talk about that N3, but we continue to believe that it will be a large and long-lasting node for us.

Jeff Su: It will be an important contributor to our 15% to 20% revenue CAGR in the next several years.

Sunny Lin: Got it. Thank you. My second question is a quick one. And so for you to growth for the share, just wonder what kind of industry growth are you assuming for the major end markets, including smartphone, PC, server, automotive?

Jeff Su: Okay. Sunny, second question is TSMC. We have said we will grow €“ have slight growth year-on-year in U.S. dollar terms this year. Her question is what are we assuming for the end market growth in areas like smartphones, PCs, automotive and others?

C. C. Wei: Well, let me answer the question, Sunny. What we look at in 2023, actually, we look at the smartphone and PC unit, we think it’s a little bit drop in terms of units. And the content will continue to increase. And for TSMC, actually, we increased our product portfolio. We also extend our market segment €“ available market segment to TSMC, so that’s why we expect the whole industry to drop slightly and TSMC still grow slightly. Sunny, did that

Sunny Lin: Sorry. Yes. So, just a quick follow-up on server and automotive. So, any expectations on server units for this year? And for auto, I think October earnings call, you mentioned there could be some slowdown going to first half of the year. Have you started to see the deceleration? That’s all my questions. Thank you very much.

Jeff Su: Okay. So, Sunny also wants to know what is our forecast for server units, automotive units, and then we said in October, three months ago, we said automotive demand was holding steady. What is the case now?

C. C. Wei: Well, the automotive demand continued to be very tight. I meant that €“ I mean demand continued to increase actually. And today, we are still probably not 100% supply enough wafers to them. But it’s improving, and we expect the automotive to €“ the shortage to be relaxed quickly. And the units, for the units to grow, we expect the automotive to grow this year, but that’s OEM stuff.

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