PC enthusiasts know that component prices are not exactly cheap. In fact, prices have just taken a hike quite recently. Things could get worse, as TSMC, one of the biggest chip makers in the world, is rumoured to be raising its prices.
The rumour comes via TweakTown, which states that the company may raise wafer prices by 25% year-over-year. This will mean that its customers, most of which are big name companies like AMD, Apple, Intel and Nvidia, among others, will be paying more to have their chips made. In turn, this will likely see the raised prices getting pushed to the consumer.
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The increase in prices may have something to do with the company building a new plant in the US. Back in November, the company reportedly poured US$3.5 billion (~RM14.4 billion) into the project.
It remains to be seen what is the extent that Intel may be affected by this. Last week, we saw reports that say the company is building two of its own chip plants in the US. Though late last year, there were reports of the company outsourcing its custom Atom and Xeon chips to TSMC. Of course, the other customers of the company may do the unexpected and absorb the price hike. It’s difficult to gauge the likeliness of this happening, but one can hope.
(Source: TweakTown)
