TSMC accused of multiple infringements may affect the production capacity of 7nm mining machines

As Bitmain's chip supplier, TSMC is the production capacity guarantee for Ant's 7nm mining machine. According to previous estimates by Caijing.com Chain Finance, it can be roughly estimated that the computing power of Bitmain's new technology in the first and second quarters of 2020 may reach 55 million TH/s-65 million TH/s.

Regarding the possible impact of the TSMC patent infringement lawsuit, Bitmain told Caijing.com Chain that Bitmain respects the intellectual property rights of third parties and conducts business in compliance with regulations around the world. Bitmain is not involved in the lawsuit and therefore cannot provide detailed information.

According to previous reports by Caijing.com Chain Finance, in mid-July, Bitmain was exposed to have booked 30,000 7nm wafer production capacity from TSMC for the third and fourth quarters, and at the end of July, Bitmain urgently placed additional wafer orders. Yiben Blockchain reported that the number of 7nm orders placed by Bitmain was 50,000 pieces, and a supply chain person close to TSMC also stated that the new orders added by Bitmain also included 16nm wafer orders in addition to 7nm.

Since this patent infringement lawsuit involves TSMC's 7nm and 16nm processes, especially the 7nm chips that have been very popular in recent years, TSMC is the only company that has truly achieved effective mass production and is generally recognized by the market. Its competitor Samsung has recently been caught up in the "7nm chip scrapping" storm due to yield rate accidents.

DeepTech mentioned in the report that although TSMC is the main defendant in this case, some manufacturers related to TSMC have been included in the list of defendants, including six chip design manufacturers: Apple, Broadcom, MediaTek, Nvidia, Qualcomm and Xilinx, as well as 10 consumer product manufacturers such as Asus, Lenovo and Google.

An industry insider told Caijing.com Chain Finance that Bitmain may not be involved for the time being, mainly because communication chips and mining chips are very different in difficulty and IP.

TSMC responded today by issuing an announcement stating that it is reviewing the complaint filed by GF on August 26, but is confident that GF's allegations are unfounded.