Higher GPU and CPU prices as TSMC ends volume discounts?

Word is going around that the price of a lot of future processors and GPUs may go up as TSMC is raising prices. In recent years, TSMC has emerged as the leader in semiconductor manufacturing. The Taiwanese foundry has an impressive track record, with good yields and it also delivers on its promises. TSMC is pretty much the only game in town, clients who need high-end chips can also use Samsung but that's a riskier bet.

The capacity of TSMC's most advanced nodes is pretty much fully booked and that gives the company more pricing power. Tom's Hardware writes the foundry has reportedly cancelled volume discounts for its largest customers and raised pricing for most of its services.

TSMC's largest customers also happen to use its most advanced fabrication process, so select clients of the foundry receive discounts for the 300mm processed wafers they purchase. TSMC's discount prices fell within 3%, but the world's largest contract maker of semiconductors had decided to cease discounts starting next year, reports Taiwanese Central News Agency.

Basically, this means the production of a lot of smartphone chips will increase, as well as the production cost of AMD CPUs and GPUs. At the moment, NVIDIA is making a lot of its Ampere GPUs at Samsung, but the green team is expected to switch back to TSMC in 2021.