Bitmain, a leading developer of application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) for cryptocurrency mining and the maker of Antminer machines, has confirmed that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) had notified its customers about planned price increases for chip production.
"On the morning of [August] 25, TSMC notified all customers that all semiconductor processes will increase their prices by 20% from now on," a statement by Bitmain reads.
Earlier this week we reported that TSMC had told its customers about its plans to increase prices for orders set to be fulfilled starting December. The world's largest foundry intends to increase prices of wafers processed using its newer N7 and N5 process technologies by 10%, while prices of older N16 and thicker nodes by 20%.
The move will increase TSMC's revenues and profit margins but will increase costs for companies like AMD, Bitmain, and Qualcomm. Boosted production costs could lead to price increases, though it remains to be seen how significantly real-world prices will be affected considering the fact that loads of products are not sold at their MSRPs.
Normally, contract chipmakers never comment on their pricing and keep all related information strictly confidential. Yet nobody can stop foundry customers from commenting on chip prices, which is exactly what Bitmain has done.
For Bitmain, chip prices may not be the most important issue. The company sells its Antminer cryptocurrency mining machines at a significant premium and usually sells everything it makes almost immediately. The company needs more ASICs from TSMC, so it's eager to pay extra and ask for additional capacity (if TSMC can provide it, of course) to get more chips and build more Antminers. Now Bitmain might increase the prices of its machines, citing TSMC's price hikes. The company says it will open sales in September for the next batch of Antminers that will be delivered in Q2 or Q3 of 2022.
"The Bitmain supply chain team will strive to steadily increase the production capacity of Antminers while adhering to manufacturing quality," the statement reads. "The next batch of ant mining machines is under preparation. It is expected to open Q2-Q3 batch sales in 2022 in September, so stay tuned!"
