Smartphones have become one of the biggest drivers of revenue for companies making the chips that power modern technology.
Possibly the best example of this can be found in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), now the primary supplier of Apple’s mobile chips. This week, the company reported that its new 7-nanometer chip technology, most notably found in Apple’s new slate of iPhones, accounted for 11% of the most-recent quarter’s revenue, or more than $930 million.
Looking at the company’s revenue over the past 13 years, newer chips that can pack more transistors into the same amount of space for use in smartphones have cannibalized the chipmaker’s revenue. Chips larger than 0.11 micrometers, which used to be the company’s sole source of revenue, now counts for less than 25%. Meanwhile, TSMC expects its 7nm chip sales to rise to 20% of revenue in this current quarter.