TSMC is clearly the leader in the foundry business, with a big gap separating the Taiwanese firm from its competitors, including Korea's Samsung and China's SMIC. Samsung has already migrated to 5nm process manufacturing, but reportedly is struggling to raise the yield rates for node. SMIC is lagging further behind though its recent debut on STAR of China's Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has promised sufficient funds supporting its R&D. But SMIC faces hurdles ahead. Chinese firms may be lagging in the foundry sector, but their device assemblers are fast catching up with Taiwanese manufacturers. Taiwan-based Wistron has announced it is selling two plants in China to Chinese device assembler Luxshare, raising speculation that Apple is looking to allow the latter to enterits iPhone supply chain.
Samsung struggling to improve 5nm process yield, say sources: It remains to be seen whether unsatisfactory yield rates at Samsung Electronics' 5nm EUV process may affect the launch of Qualcomm's next-generation flagship 5G mobile chip series, according to industry sources.
SMIC faces hurdles catching up with TSMC: China's state-backed SMIC has stepped up the development of its FinFET process technology, disclosing plans to roll out its FinFET N+1 and N+2 processes without implementing EUV lithography.
Wistron to sell iPhone factories in China to Luxshare:Wistron has announced it is selling two of its subsidiaries in China to Chinese IT manufacturer Luxshare with the transactions to total CNY3.3 billion (US$472.37 million). The transactions could mark major changes to Apple's supply chain strategies, according to industry sources.
