Sentiment Analysis of the earnings transcript to help figure out if there are any bullish or bearish sentiments that could be gathered from it. We're doing ML and AI based analysis on the earnings call to get some more insights.
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| Statement |
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| Our N2 adopt nanosheet transistor structure, which has demonstrated excellent power efficiency and toward deliver full node performance and power benefit to address the increasing need for energy-efficient computing |
| In fact, in the past three years, automotive demand is very strong |
| dollars as our third quarter business was supported by the strong ramp of our industry-leading 3-nanometer technology and higher demand for 5-nanometer technologies, partially offset customers' ongoing inventory adjustment |
| And those two are unique and specific to TSMC, enable our customers to win business in their end market and TSMC continues to deliver healthy growth, and that's why we can do better than overall industry |
| And when we increased the volume production, we believe that TSMC's silicon photonics will be the best technology and when customer roll out all their innovations |
| It looks like you are showing some really good countercyclical strength and probably a record high |
| Wei Charlie, the AI demand continues to grow stronger and stronger |
| Having said that, our internal assessment shows our N3P, now I repeat again, N3P technology, demonstrated comparable PPA to 18A, my competitors' technology, but with an earlier time to market, better technology, maturity and much better cost |
| We still think that HPC will be the strongest one and will be the major growth contributor to our multiyear growth |
| Compared to our third quarter guidance, our actual gross margin exceeded the high end of the range provided three months ago by 80 basis points, mainly due to a more favorable foreign exchange rate |
| And because of our technology leadership and our good manufacturing, so we are able to address and capture a major portion of the market |
| With our strategy of continuous enhancement, N2 and its derivative will further extend our technology leadership well into the future |
| But even with the American environment remain uncertain, we're weighing customers inventory control in first half of 2024 -- that we already said that we are strong technology leadership and the broad customer base |
| So, the final result is better than we expected three months ago |
| As a result, we are observing a strong level of customer interest and engagement at our N2 similar to or higher than N3 at a similar stage from both HPC and smartphone applications |
| Our business in the third quarter was supported by the strong ramp of our industry-leading 3-nanometer technology and higher demand for 5-nanometer technologies, partially offset by customers' ongoing inventory adjustment |
| The recent surge in AI-related demand supports our already strong conviction that demand for energy-efficient computing will accelerate in an intelligent and connected world |
| With our strategy of continuous enhancement of our 3-nanometer process technologies, we expect strong multi-yield demand from our customers and we are competent that our 3-nanometer family will be another large and long-lasting node for TSMC |
| N3E will leverage the strong foundation of N3 to further extend our N3 family with enhanced performance, power and yield and provide complete platform support for both HPC and smartphone applications |
| N3 is already involving production with good yield, and we are seeing a strong ramp in the second half of this year, supported by both HPC and smartphone applications |
| How important is this, and will this be a competitive advantage for TSMC going forward in the future |
| By taking such actions, TSMC have the ability to absorb the higher cost of overseas fabs and still deliver the long-term gross margin of 53% and higher and sustainable ROE greater than 25% |
| And so, that no matter what, TSMC provide industry-leading solution in both leading technology and also well-advanced packaging technology, and to work with our customer for their product and have a best system performance |
| At the same time, we are leveraging our fundamental competitive advantage of manufacturing technology leadership, large volume economies of scale to continuously drive our cost down |
| He notes that he saw very strong sequential revenue increase in the third quarter |
| We are making good progress on the fab infrastructure, utilities, and equipment installation issues in our first fab and the situation is improving |
| We reaffirm N3 will contribute a mid-single-digit percentage of our total wafer revenue in 2023, and we expect a much higher percentage in 2024 supported by robust demand for multiple customers |
| The value of our technology platform is expanding beyond the scope of geometry string along and increasing toward great power efficiency |
| We continue to target volume production of N4 process technology in first half 2025 and are confident that once we begin operations, we will be able to deliver the same level of manufacturing, quality and reliability in Arizona as from our fabs in Taiwan |
| Charles Shi First off, I really want to congratulate the TSMC for delivering good results for Q3 and very good guidance for Q4 |
| Statement |
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| So it's going to be pretty challenging for future leading nodes to reach corporate margin as in before -- like before in the same time frame |
| We have just guided our fourth quarter gross margin to decline by 1.8 percentage points to 52.5% at the midpoint, primarily due to the continued margin dilution from this steep ramp of our 3-nanometer technology |
| And so Gokul's question is, how do we see this? Are we concerned that we will lose market share at nanosheet or N2 to this IDM given their claims of regaining process technology leadership |
| However, due to the persistent weaker overall macroeconomic conditions and slow demand recovery in China, customers remain cautious in their inventory control |
| And maybe just as a follow-up, I wanted to ask about some of the areas in the quarter that were weaker than expected, namely 7-nanometer, I think it's half year-on-year and also automotive that saw a decline sequentially, a meaningful decline sequentially |
| Operating margin was 41.7%, down 0.3 percentage point from the previous quarter |
| So that exactly, in this time frame, the N7's utilization has been impacted and followed by one major customer who delayed their product introduction |
| Let me answer the question because of -- we suddenly have -- in 10 years, the smartphone demand dropped dramatically from about 1.4 billion units to about 1.1 billion now |
| But as we progress with more and more leading nodes, it will become more and more challenging because of several reasons |
| The smartphone business supposed to be in line or slightly below the corporate average in terms of the growth rate, but the smartphone business was down meaningfully in 2023 |
| dollar and now it could actually be down high single digit |
| If you ask me, what is the most challenging part, I would say it's cost |
| Automotive decreased 24% to account for 5% |
| How do we see the automotive demand? And then also his question is about 7-nanometer, also year-on-year sharp revenue decrease |
| We might slow down our capacity expansion according to customer demand |
| Our challenge right now, actually, I would say, number one, cost |
| Yes, in the next two to three years, backing up to '21 to '26, we still expect that the smartphone, as a whole, will grow slightly slower than the corporate average |
| And also, in the past few years, the inflation pressure that was not expected also contribute the higher cost in the N3 |
| So Mehdi is really looking at he rightly noted that three months ago, we said this year will decline around 10% in U.S |
| And so that's why we have a low utilization |
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