The semiconductor industry has seen some major players committing significant sums for R&D, such as TSMC announcing to inject a record-high capex of up to US$28 billion in 2021 mainly for advancing its process node.
MediaTek is also planning to increase its R&D spending for 2021 to levels higher than the sum of over US$2 billion spent in 2020, according to the company during a product launch event. MediaTek, which achieved significant results from 5G and AI chips in 2020, is expected to spend more seekig to expand its presence in the related market segments in 2021.
Intel had previously committed substantial resources developing the latest manufacturing processes, and its success had created an era of Wintel dominance lasting for many years, the sources said.
Of TSMC's US$25-28 billion capex, the foundry is planning to use 80% for developing 3nm/5nm/7nm processes, 10% in packaging and photomask and the last 10% special manufacturing processes, the sources noted.
The sources believe Intel and Samsung Electronics are unlikely to follow suit and invest substantial sums in 2021.
