OpenAI officially announces its entry into the AI chip sector through collaboration with chip giant Broadcom, planning to develop its first custom AI inference chip. This strategic move not only marks a significant step towards supply chain autonomy for OpenAI but also targets NVIDIA's current dominance in the AI chip market. According to Reuters, OpenAI has assembled a specialized R&D team of about 20 members, including the chief engineer who participated in the development of Google's Tensor processors. The project will be led by Broadcom for chip design and TSMC for manufacturing.

On October 22, 2024, Qualcomm unveiled its new flagship mobile platform, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, at the Snapdragon Technology Summit. This chip is manufactured using TSMC's second-generation 3nm process and features Qualcomm's self-developed Oryon CPU architecture, achieving a dual enhancement in performance and energy efficiency. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is Qualcomm's first mobile platform to adopt an all-large core design, eliminating the previous mix of big and little cores. The CPU consists of two super cores with a frequency of up to 4.32GHz and six cores running at 3.53GHz.

Against the backdrop of rising global chip demand, semiconductor manufacturing company TSMC announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2024, which were impressive. The company reported a net profit of NT$352.3 billion (approximately $10.1 billion), an increase of 54% compared to the same period last year. This achievement surpassed market analysts' expectations, with Reuters previously estimating a net profit of NT$300.2 billion. Image source: The image was generated by AI, provided by the image licensing service Midjourney. TSMC is a global leader in advanced chips.

Recently, TSMC announced that it expects a significant profit increase of 40% in its upcoming Q3 earnings report. This surge is primarily attributed to the booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. As the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, TSMC's clients include renowned companies such as Apple and Nvidia, which are actively advancing AI technology. According to LSEG's smart estimate, analysts predict that TSMC's net profit for the third quarter ending September 30 will reach NT$298.2 billion (approximately US$9.27 billion).

Recently, globally renowned chip manufacturers TSMC and Samsung have been actively discussing plans to build a large semiconductor factory in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is reported that this project may involve multiple factories, with a total investment exceeding $100 billion, funded by the UAE, while the United States will oversee the operations of the factories. Image source note: Image generated by AI, image licensed from service provider Midjourney. Additionally, Samsung is also considering the establishment of new chip factories in the UAE in the coming years.

Recently, foreign media reported that ByteDance is accelerating its efforts to self-develop and manufacture AI chips to reduce dependence on expensive chips from NVIDIA. The report claims that ByteDance plans to collaborate with TSMC and expects to mass-produce two self-developed AI chips by 2026, having already reserved the production of hundreds of thousands of chips. More notably, the report pointed out that ByteDance aims for its self-developed chip clusters to achieve four times the computing performance of a single H100 chip at a similar cost. In response, ByteDance quickly addressed this report.

Recently, the foreign media outlet The Information reported that ByteDance is accelerating the development of its own AI chips and plans to collaborate with TSMC, aiming for mass production by 2026. The report also stated that this move by ByteDance is intended to reduce dependence on NVIDIA chips and lower the costs of developing and operating AI models. Source note: The image is generated by AI and provided by the image licensing service Midjourney, according to reports from the Sci-tech Innovation Board Daily regarding today's media coverage of ByteDance's plans to collaborate with TSMC on AI chips.

Intel has unveiled its first Lunar Lake mobile processor at the IFA conference, achieving Microsoft's Copilot+ performance targets. This chip offers up to 120 TOPS of AI computing power, significantly improving performance by 14% for core clock instructions and 68% for efficiency core performance, with graphics processing performance up about 50% compared to the previous generation. Compared to AMD, Lunar Lake performs similarly in graphics-intensive tasks like gaming but with approximately 30% lower power consumption. In terms of performance, it outperforms Qualcomm.

OpenAI has selected TSMC's 1.6nm chip technology as its primary supplier, marking a significant strategic upgrade in its AI hardware sector. Mass production is expected to begin in 2026, which will significantly enhance its technological performance. In collaboration with Broadcom and Marvell, OpenAI plans to develop ASICs dedicated to AI applications based on TSMC's 3nm process series in 2024 or 2025. Additionally, Apple plans to integrate OpenAI's AI solutions into the new iPhone and may.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is in discussions with chip manufacturer TSMC to launch an AI chip manufacturing factory. The plan aims to raise billions of dollars. Altman is also in talks with one of Abu Dhabi's wealthiest individuals, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, to collaborate with TSMC in raising billions to support this initiative.

Microsoft has launched two self-developed AI chips: Maia 100 and CobAlt, which will be manufactured by TSMC using 5nm process technology. They are expected to be deployed in Microsoft's Azure data centers next year to enhance the energy efficiency of generative AI products and reduce costs, as Microsoft aims to gain an advantage in the AI and cloud computing fields.

["TSMC's 7/6nm process capacity utilization rate has risen to 60%, expected to reach 70% by the end of the year","AI chip customers such as Google, Microsoft, and Tesla accept price increases in 2024","Net profit and revenue in the third quarter exceeded expectations","The CEO stated that the chip market is nearing its bottom, with strong AI demand still persisting","Intel needs to match TSMC's level in service, reliability, and other areas to have a competitive opportunity"]

TSMC's revenue for July reached NT$177.616 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13.6%. The consolidated revenue for the first seven months totaled NT$1.16 trillion, a year-on-year decrease of 3.7%. The revenue growth is attributed to increased orders for Apple's iPhone 15 series and strong demand for high-performance computing orders.