Apple, which was designated as the top spender at TSMC, the leading chip maker globally, in the year 2023, actually proved its loyalty. In the quarterly record of the global tech giant, TSMC revealed a large 25% contribution, about US$17.Fifty two billion, to the enterprise’s overall sales. This is a clean demonstration of how dependent the tech large is on TSMC’s fine-in-class manufacturing strategies.
Usually, TSMC’s customer relations are very confidential. However, under US law, they must inform customers of any expenditure exceeding 10% of their income. This is the reason why seeing Apple, labeled as “Customer A” in the company’s official paperwork, is so recognizable.
It is also noteworthy that Nvidia is the chip giant’s second-largest client, with an 11% share valued at US$7.73 billion, which means TSMC still receives a larger chunk. Thus, it reflects the increasing demand for GPUs by Nvidia for progressively superior chips.
Apart from Apple and NVIDIA, among the other top ten customers are MediaTek, Advanced Micro Devices, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Sony, and Marvell, making them the world’s most extensive customer base. It was the aggregate of these top customers that, surprisingly, contributed nearly 91% of TSMC’s earnings in 2023, demonstrating the dependency on sophisticated chip production.
A rise in customer concentration is observed because the top ten contribute to the growth of TSMC (the largest TSV foundry) in increased revenue of up to 9% in 2023 compared to 2022. This shows the increasing role of a not-so-large group in dictating the direction of the chip industry worldwide.
The same is true for Apple’s relationship with TSMC, which is historical, and now they produce a lot of chips used in their products. Reports had it that Apple appeared as the leading manufacturer to welcome TSMC’s 2nm chip technology into the market, with the expectation that its future iPhone 17 Pro top model would be powered by this technology. Having been granted access to the latest technology that is the most advanced, cemented Apple as an integral part of the semiconductor industry in the world.
