Taiwan Semiconductor Starts Mass Production Of 3-Nanometer Chips

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, plans to hold a ceremony Thursday to celebrate the start of mass production using its 3-nanometer process technology. TSMC is leading the race to make chips with ever smaller circuits.

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Circuit widths on chips are measured in nanometers, which are one-billionth of a meter. Smaller circuits translate to faster and more power-efficient semiconductors.

High-end central processing units and graphics processors are the biggest users of the smallest-node chips. TSMC’s customers include Apple (AAPL), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Nvidia (NVDA) and more.

The start of 3-nanometer production at TSMC comes amid a slowdown in sales of devices that would use those chips, namely PCs, smartphones and servers.

Taiwan Semiconductor’s current state-of-the-art chips use 5-nanometer process technology.

Taiwan Semiconductor To Tout Domestic Commitment

Focus Taiwan reported that it is unusual for TSMC to hold a ceremony to mark the beginning of commercial production of a new technology. The ceremony will reinforce TSMC’s commitment to continue using Taiwan as a hub for research and development and production even as it plans new factories in the U.S. and Europe, the publication said.

Apple and Intel (INTC) are expected to place orders for chips made with TSMC’s 3-nanometer process, Focus Taiwan said.

On the stock market today, Taiwan Semiconductor stock dipped 0.8% to close at 74.32.

TSM stock ranks No. 11 out of 32 stocks in IBD’s semiconductor manufacturing industry group, according to IBD Stock Checkup. It has a mediocre IBD Composite Rating of 73 out of 99.

IBD’s Composite Rating is a blend of key fundamental and technical metrics to help investors gauge a stock’s strengths. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.

Follow Patrick Seitz on Twitter at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.

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