TSMC seeing chip orders for Android devices ramp up

Taipei, Taiwan, Mar. 19, 2019 – 

Pure-play foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has started seeing chip orders for Android devices ramp up recently, with its fabless clients including HiSilicon, MediaTek and Qualcomm stepping up their pace of orders, according to industry sources.

In particular, the sources continued, TSMC has seen orders placed by HiSilicon for the second quarter outpace those placed by its other mobile SoC customers. HiSilicon is expected to provide as high as 70% of total smartphone chips demanded by Huawei.

Huawei also uses chips provided by MediaTek and Qualcomm, which are both set to see orders for Huawei's smartphones decline in 2019 given Huawei's more reliance on its chip design subsidiary, the sources noted.