AMD at additional costs of TSMCs US chips: “More than 5 %, but less than 20 %”

Companies that order chips from TSMC’s new US neckline work in Arizona have to pay more than for the same chip from Taiwan. This is due to the higher operating costs in the USA, especially due to salaries.

AMD CEO Lisa SU recently called a budget at an event: “More than five percent, but less than 20 percent” The US chips are therefore more expensive, accordingly cited the news agency Bloomberg SU. In the worst case, the additional costs in US dollars are likely to be double digits. The surcharge also affects other customers such as Apple and Nvidia.

Epyc starts

AMD has all chips or chip places for current processors and graphics cards produce from the world’s largest chip application. So far, the chips in TSMC’s home country Taiwan have been running off the assembly line. In future, AMD will also have CPU compute chips from the ZEN 5 generation with 4-nanometer technology also manufactured in Arizona.

These are intended for the Epyc 9005 alias Turin server processors. Since the prices of the appropriate models are significantly higher than with desktop and notebook CPUs, AMD can hide the additional costs well. The price recommendations range from $ 527 for the EPYC 9015 to $ 12,984 for the EPYC 9755. Since AMD divides the CPU cores into several chip places, the production yield remains high for the top models. The margin therefore increases significantly from the entry-level to the top model.

AMD cannot have chip places for the 192-Kerner Epyc 9965 in the USA. It uses more compact Zen-5C cores with 3-nanometer technology, which TSMC only uses in Taiwan for the time being.

Su told Bloomberg that the surcharge for diversification of the supply chain can be worthwhile. AMD can also advertise with products that are at least partially “made in USA”. The company should face the current US government so well.