Pure-play foundry houses are requiring fabless chip vendors to prepay for the capacity bookings or to co-fund their capacity expansion projects. One of such cases is Qualcomm striking a six-year deal UMC in order to secure foundry support. Supply in the semiconductor sector is expected to remain tight in the foreseeable future, with IC substrate supply unlikely to see major improvements until late 2021 or 2022.
Pure-play foundries expanding capacity with prepayments from clients: TSMC and other Taiwan-based pure-play foundries intend to carry out their capacity expansion projects cautiously and progressively to avoid the risk of overcapacity.
Qualcomm strikes long-term deal with UMC, sources say: Qualcomm is believed to have struck a long-term deal with United Microelectronics (UMC) under which the pure-play foundry will provide capacity support for the chip vendor over six years, according to industry sources.
IC substrate supply to stay constrained in 2021-2022: The global supply of IC substrates will not see major inprovement until late 2021 or 2022 when Taiwan-based suppliers' additional capacity comes online, according to industry sources.
