On December 19th last year, I announced that, I have decided not to seek nomination of Board members for the next term and will retire from the company after the 2024 Annual Shareholders Meeting in June. Allow me to say this, over the past 30 years, I have been incredibly fortunate to be able to work at and contribute to TSMC. I started at TSMC 30 years ago as a leader of a small four-person fab construction team. It has been my privilege to serve as Chairman of TSMC and after our legendary Founder, Dr. Morris Chang, over the last six years. During this time, we have reaffirmed our commitment to our mission, to be the trusted technology and capacity provider to the global logic IC industry for years to come, while adhering to our core values of integrity, commitment, innovation, and customer trust.
TSMC’s success is predicated on providing the industry’s most leading-edge processing technology at scale, in a most efficient and cost-effective manner, to enable all the innovators to successfully offer their best products to the world. We together have worked diligently to enhance our focus on our technology leadership, competitiveness, global manufacturing footprint, digital excellence, sustainability, and corporate governance to maximize the value for our customers and our shareholders. The past 30 years with TSMC has been an extraordinary journey for me and I want to extend my sincerest thanks to our incredible, talented team and all our TSMC’s colleagues whose diligence, dedication, and can-do spirit have made the company into what it is today.
Now TSMC’s nomination, corporate governance and sustainability committee of the board has recommended Dr. C. C. Wei to succeed as the company’s next Chairman, subject to the election of the incoming board in June 2024. If Dr. Wei is elected to be Chairman, he should also continue in his current role as CEO. Supported by a deep and experienced team of Senior Executives, many of whom have been with TSMC for many, many years. As I look ahead to spend more time with my family and starting the next chapter of my life after my — our AGM in June, I remain fully confident in TSMC’s strategy, leadership, and execution and firmly believe TSMC will continue to perform outstandingly in the years ahead. Thank you for your trust in TSMC, and the best is yet to come for the company and its shareholders.
This conclude my messages and our key messages together. Thank you for your attention.
Jeff Su: Thank you, Chairman. This concludes our prepared statements. So, before we begin the Q&A session, I would like to remind everybody to please again limit your questions to two at a time, so we can allow all the participants an opportunity to ask their questions. Questions will be taken both from the floor and also from the call online. Should you wish to raise your questions in Chinese, I will translate it to English before our management answers your question. [Operator Instructions]. So now let’s begin the Q&A session. Again, our Chairman, Dr. Mark Lui will be the host. Let’s take the first two questions from the floor, please.
A – Jeff Su: Okay. Our first question comes from Charlie Chan from Morgan Stanley.
Charlie Chan: It’s great to see you again in person, Happy New Year. Allow me to remain seated. I have some long question to you. So, first question is to C. C. I am very curious about your comments about the technology leadership, because your competitor knows all customer intel, states that their PPA is ahead of your 2-nanometer, even the cost is lower. So, I want to consult your opinion, why there’s a different story and how do we judge. And given these debates, how TSMC is going to plan the future capacity for this customer and also competitor, we want to seize this opportunity, but also avoid any overexpansion?
Jeff Su: Okay. Thank you, Charlie. Just please allow me for the benefit of the audience here in person and online to summarize your question. So, Charlie, first question is around sort of the technology leadership and also our relationship, I guess, or capacity planning with a specific IDM. So, the first part of his question is on the technology part. He notes this IDM. It says their PPA is ahead of TSMC’s 2-nanometer and the cost can be lower. We said our technology is industry leading, so how do we reconcile the difference? And also, how do we plan the future capacity planning for such type of customer?
C. C. Wei: Charlie, you named my customer’s name, that’s my customer and my competitor. Let me repeat the last time when I come in on their technology. The comment stays the same, so that they are new is the technology would be very similar or equivalent to TSMC’s N3P. We further check again with all the specs or the possible published in technology, transistor technology and everything. My comment stays the same with a big advantage in the technology maturity. Because of, in 2025, when they say that their newest technology will be go on production. For TSMC, that will be the third year with a very high-volume production in the fabs. So again, I don’t want to make too much of a comment on my customers’ claim, but let me assure you. We continue to have a technology leadership and we continue to have a broader base of customer and almost everybody, almost. They are working with TSMC.
