AMD on additional costs of TSMC's US chips: "More than 5%, but less than 20%"
Higher operating costs in TSMC's US semiconductor plant are causing manufacturing costs to rise. AMD boss Lisa Su is open on the subject.
Companies that order chips from TSMC's new US semiconductor plant in Arizona have to pay more than for the same chip from Taiwan. This is due to the higher operating expenses in the USA, particularly due to salaries.
At a recent event, AMD CEO Lisa Su named a cost framework: “More than five percent, but less than 20 percent” more expensive are the US chips, according to the news agency Bloomberg, quoting Su. In the worst-case scenario, the additional costs in US dollars are likely to be in double figures. The surcharge also affects other customers, such as Apple and Nvidia.
Epyc makes the start
AMD has all chips and chiplets for current processors and graphics cards produced by the world's largest chip contract manufacturer, TSMC. Until now, the chips have been produced in TSMC's home country, Taiwan. In the future, however, AMD will also have CPU compute chiplets from the Zen 5 generation with 4-nanometer technology manufactured in Arizona.
These are intended for the Epyc 9005 alias Turin server processors. As the prices of the corresponding models are significantly higher than for desktop and notebook CPUs, AMD can hide the additional costs well. The recommended prices range from 527 US dollars for the Epyc 9015 to 12,984 US dollars for the Epyc 9755. As AMD splits the CPU cores into several chiplets, the production yield remains high even for the top models. The margin therefore increases considerably from the entry-level to the top model.
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Chiplets for the 192-core Epyc 9965 cannot be manufactured by AMD in the USA. It uses more compact Zen 5c cores with 3-nanometer technology, which TSMC is only using in the USA for now.
Su told Bloomberg that the surcharge may be worthwhile to diversify the supply chain. AMD can also advertise with products that are at least partially “Made in the USA”. This should put the company in a good position with the current US government.
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