According to industry insiders, TSMC has received orders for 3nm chips from Intel's upcoming laptop (PC) processor series, and wafer production has begun.
Intel will shift to a new laptop processor platform as planned in the second half of this year. Sources say that the Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake series will be launched at the end of the third and fourth quarters respectively.
Sources point out that the main attraction of Intel's upcoming laptop chips lies in the company's first-ever order of computing modules from TSMC. Intel will use TSMC's customized 3nm process technology to manufacture its Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake computing cores, and the company has recently started producing wafers in pure wafer foundries. Production is expected to increase in early 2025.
To meet demand, TSMC currently plans to convert some 5nm devices to support 3nm production capacity, and the industry expects monthly production capacity to increase to 120000 to 180000 pieces. However, the industry has not yet considered the production capacity demand for Intel Lunar Lake processors, and although it cannot be determined whether consumer product prices will rise due to 3nm supply interruptions, these indicators all suggest that this situation is happening.
Previously, it was reported that TSMC's 3nm has received full production capacity from multiple customers including Apple and Nvidia, resulting in a shortage of supply and an expected full order by 2026. Therefore, the price of TSMC's 3nm contract manufacturing is expected to rise, with an increase of over 5%.
