The 'chip giant' is making a name for itself! Apple accepts TSMC's price increase and acquires 150000 pieces of 4nm production capacity; Samsung announces for the first time that QD display screen conductive silver glue has exploded!

As the world's largest foundry enterprise, TSMC holds a pivotal position in the market, accounting for over 50% of the market share. This advantage has also led to TSMC's market value ranking among the top. Currently, its latest market value has reached $626.5 billion (approximately 4 trillion yuan), regaining its position as the global chip king and becoming the eighth largest enterprise in terms of market value.

Recently, this 4 trillion yuan "chip giant" has set a new record. In Q4 of last year, the giant's revenue reached 101 billion yuan, breaking records for six consecutive quarters. In 2021, its annual revenue reached as high as 365.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.5%. So whenever this giant makes a slight move, the industry holds its breath and dare not even breathe.

The reason why TSMC has achieved such excellent results cannot be separated from the assistance of its VIP level customer - Apple. TSMC, which is well versed in this principle, has also given Apple enough face, often giving them special treatment and differential treatment, which has caused Qualcomm AMD、 Intel's other customers are dissatisfied and full of complaints, even wanting to cooperate with Samsung and switch to a new supplier with full sincerity.

However, the global chip shortage is becoming increasingly severe, and even TSMC, which has earned a lot of money, is inevitably raising prices considering costs and supply shortages. In 2020, the giant raised chip prices comprehensively, and the average price of optimized advanced processes such as 12nm, 7nm, and 4nm was increased by 8-10%.

It should be noted that in the past, when TSMC raised prices, Apple always had confidence and easily avoided them. While other customers were forced to accept the price increase, Apple could still get a discount. However, this time is different from the past. In order to ensure sufficient production capacity, Apple accepted TSMC's price increase for the first time and even took the lead in purchasing 120000 to 150000 pieces of 4nm production capacity from other companies.

Apple has already achieved this goal, and it goes without saying that TSMC will also show mercy and leniency towards its loyal customers. Earlier, the market revealed that TSMC treated other customers differently, with a maximum increase of 20% in orders for other customers, but only a 3% increase for Apple.

2. Samsung's first public QD display: officially entering the OLED market

On January 17th, according to the South Korean newspaper Dong-A Ilbo, Samsung Display Company unveiled its first QD display screen based on organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). As Samsung monitors enter the OLED basic display market, it is expected that competition with LG, which entered the market ahead of schedule, will fully unfold.

On the day before the opening of CES 2022, the world's largest information technology (IT) and home appliance exhibition, Samsung Display unveiled three types of QD displays: 55 and 65 inch TV panels, and 34 inch display panels. QD display screen is a display that uses quantum dot (QD) material on OLED panel.

Samsung displays are equipped with both QD displays and commercially available OLED, mini LED TVs, etc., showcasing the color performance, brightness, and other advanced features of QD displays. The company explained, "Thanks to the characteristics of quantum dots that widely disperse light, the image quality does not change according to the viewing angle, and the 'burn in' phenomenon, which is considered a disadvantage of existing OLEDs, has also been greatly improved

Samsung Display has also launched a new generation of OLED display form factor (machine form) suitable for small and medium-sized machines such as smartphones. In addition, the display screens "Flex S" and "Flex G" that can be folded twice were also released. S can be folded inward and outward once, and G can be folded inward twice. Flex Slidable "is a product that uses the existing 6.7-inch form factor and can expand horizontally when multitasking is required, using a 7.3-inch screen. In addition, it also showcased the use of a 12.4-inch flexible display screen, which can be used as a cylindrical speaker or replaced with a flat screen display for "artificial intelligence (AI) speakers" or foldable console game consoles.