NVidia, AMD Battle To Buy Out TSMC's Capacity

Long-time Slashdot reader UnknowingFool writes: As NVidia and AMD battle it out with their GPUs in consumer gaming, behind the scenes both manufacturers were competing against each for manufacturing capacity with TSMC's lines. It appears that early on in the 7nm line, NVidia lost out as it is rumored their strategy was to use Samsung more only to go back to TSMC when that failed By then TSMC had sold out their capacity to AMD. For their next generation GPUs it appears both NVidia is securing both 5nm early while grabbing as much 7nm as possible.

Re:

[b02]

PUT ON MY PJS & HOP INTO BED
~jewel~

Re:

[redback]

what are you really angry about?

Re:

[Kjella]

what are you really angry about?

He's angry about not having anything better to troll /. with than bland copypasta.

Re:Hurry up, Nvidia

[DrMrLordX]

They're competing with Genoa for wafers. I don't think TSMC is going to prioritize nVidia this time around. Also, Apple and Qualcomm are probably ahead of everyone. The only good news is that Huawei backed off on their orders of 7nm and 5nm wafers recently. That leaves more for everyone.

This is what happens when there's only one leading-edge fab left in the world.

Re:

[bloodhawk]

I doubt they could get the money together for that, current price puts AMD at 62 billion, would take 80-100 billion to buyout. Besides which it would be instantly blocked for anti competitive.

Re:

[bloodhawk]

HOW? enlighten us? their market value is only 192B with only around 10B of cash on hand equivalent investments. They would have to sell half the company to be able to afford to even try.

Re:

[bloodhawk]

how exactly do you see Nvidia finding the other 87B it will cost them to buy out AMD? personally I only minored in maths at Uni but I am finding it real tough to see how Nvidia could do this, they would need to put themselves in debt up to their eyeballs at a time when credit will be incredibly hard to acquire.

Re:

[redback]

They could have bought ATI, but not AMD.

Re:

[GigaplexNZ]

Pretty sure Intel would have something to say about that and the transfer of the x86 licenses.

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

If nVidia tries a buyout, Intel can invoke parts of their crosslicensing agreement that would force NV to give up most of AMD's CPU patent portfolio. Or at least render it useless. That, in turn, would probably provoke anti-trust accusations against Intel. Simultaneously, anti-trust actions would probably be lobbed at nVidia for locking up so much of the GPU market (though Intel technically is the world's top shipper of GPUs. Technically).

NV has the ability to produce x86-compatible CPUs already via bin

Re: Hurry up, Nvidia

[RealNeoMorpheus]

I would prefer that apple bought AMD instead of nvidia. That said, about intel blocking anyone via licenses and patents, remember that x64 is all AMD, hence they have leverage., I believe. But who knows what their deal and agreements are.

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

I don't speculate in the semicon industry. And you aren't making much sense.

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

You talk like a bad character from a conspiracy film.

Huawei dumping their wafer allocation is good for anyone else looking to buy. Duh.

Re: Hurry up, Nvidia

[Type44Q]

Was this fed back and forth through a translation app a few times? I don't think English is your thing.

Re:

[thegarbz]

This is what happens when there's only one leading-edge fab left in the world.

I'm confused, what makes you think TSMC is the only leading-edge fab? Currently there's 3 large scale fabs capable of 5nm production, and TSMC wasn't even the first, that crown goes to Samsung, and IRDS is coming up the rear, though worth noting that IRDS's "7nm" process has smaller dimensions than TSMC's "5nm" because numbers are just marketing now.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Errr disregard that, the article I read conflated IRDS with Fabs, but the point is TSMC wasn't the first to 5nm and they aren't the only major game in town.

Re:

[Luckyo]

My understanding is that Nvidia and AMD are competing for high power logic capable node. Afaik 5nm in that doesn't exist right now.

You're probably confusing the mobile phone "low power logic" and "memory" capable nodes, neither of which is capable of delivering what Nvidia and AMD are looking for.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Re:

[gnasher719]

I think Samsung has one customer that has absolutely highest priority, and that customer is Samsung.

Politics

[DontBeAMoran]

nVidia: if things don't pan out with Samsung, we'll go with TSMC.
TSMC: NO SOUP FOR YOU! NEXT!

Bullshit.

[Guspaz]

"NVIDIA has 'pre-booked' the entire of TSMC's production capacity of 5nm in 2021"

No, they haven't. Apple has booked a ton of TSMC's 5nm capacity, and AMD has already bought significant amounts of TSMC's 5nm capacity. TSMC worked with AMD to design a specific version of their 5nm process just for AMD.

Re: Bullshit.

[UnknowingFool]

Where does it say that NVIdia booked all of TSMCâ(TM)s 5nm? The article say that they secured some 5nm capacity by pre-booking it unlike with 7nm where they missed out by waiting too long.

Re:

[bloodhawk]

The article itself has it as a heading, though I think that is just like on slashdot where they have illiterate editors as while it is a heading the story does not reflect that.

Re:

[MobyDisk]

Guspaz pasted it exactly as it appears in the subtitle, right under the title in bold.

Re:amd

[DrMrLordX]

I'm sorry, which year is this again? And how old is that laptop?

Intel is mostly still stuck on 14nm (see: Comet Lake) while AMD has been on TSMC 7nm since last year. And you think AMD is the one producing CPUs that overheat? Please. Go read a review of the 4900HS and show me where it "tends to overheat".

Re:

[Billly Gates]

AMD is a shitty company that will be inferior to Intel and Nvida. They do make stuff for cheaper but at what cost? AMD still sucks for games and has reliability problems.

Re:

[Luckyo]

Except of course where they are superior to both. Which is all the time in graphics to intel and CPUs to nvidia.

And intermittently where they are better than intel in CPUs, like right now, or Nvidia, like in the nvidia FX era.

Re: amd

[Type44Q]

I've been a huge fan of many of AMD's products but there's partial truth to your [highly-subjective] claims: AMD's products take longer to "ripen" than Intel's or nV's, as compilers and API's develop.

If you want a highly-stable, current-spec PC that you have to tinker with as little as possible, and cost is less of a consideration, Intel w/nV might very well be your best option.

For value-conscious hobbyists who don't mind constantly fucking with their rigs, and enjoy watching their purchases run faster, bec

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

Dude what year are you in? Zen2/Matisse dominates the DiY field, and it's only due to stubborn vendor contracts that AMD can't get more traction elsewhere. I swear people need to get with the times. Value-conscious?

Haven't seen Threadripper 3990x have you? Guess not.

Re:

[UnknownSoldier]

> AMD still sucks for games

Are you talking CPUs [anandtech.com] or GPUs [anandtech.com]?

While the AMD Radeon drivers issues are more vocal [reddit.com] if AMD sucks SO bad for games then why is it being used in the next gen consoles???

I know, I know. Don't feed the trolls.

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

I see someone doesn't read benchmarks. Oh well.

Re:

[Briareos]

You do realize that you replied to a meaningless post from a spam account? (Check that guy's post history...)

Re:

[bloodhawk]

yeah they suck, lets instead get those cool running 10th gen processors from Intel, Sure they may make it feel like your house is a furnace, but that is just the warm glow you get from using non suck.

Systemic Global Risk

[labnet]

You would think with TSMC having 50% of the global chip wafer market with much of that in Taiwan, that this is a systemic risk to the world given Chinas growing agressiveness.

Re:

[Pinky's Brain]

Move along, nothing to see here global citizen.

Re:

[vadim_t]

Hopefully never, or nVidia will be perfectly happy to sell the same thing over and over with minimal improvements.

The market needs competition.

Re: When will AMD give up?

[sabian2008]

OMG these kids who still think GPUs are about gaming. Take a look at the evolution of Nvidia's revenue stream and try to put 2+2 together.

I will never forget the lies of PureVideo.

[landofcleve]

My 6800GT was not what was promised, and I will never buy nVidia ever again.