TSMC, in its Q1 2026 earnings call, talked a bit about Intel as a competitor in the foundry business while stating the benefits of its A14 process node.
TSMC Posts Record Revenues But Acknowledges Its Competitors & Their Respective Technologies Good For The Industry
For Q1 FY26, TSMC is reporting a revenue of $35.9 billion, up 6.4% Q-Q. During the earnings call, TSMC's Chairman and CEO, C.C. Wei, highlighted the company's current foundry ventures, updates on upcoming nodes, and also stated what he thinks about the competition & the situation regarding the current supply chain.
Starting first with Intel, and its recent alliance with Tesla on the Terafab project, C.C. said that he views Intel in particular as a formidable competitor. At the same time, Intel and Tesla remain key customers for TSMC. About the chip manufacturing ambitions of each competitor, C.C. states that the foundry business is simpler said than done.
TSMC didn't become a success overnight; they worked through various hardships to achieve the current status, and the same is going to be true for anyone who is venturing into this business. He highlighted that building a chip fabrication plant takes at least 2-3 years, and then, the first ramp takes another 1-2 years.
Tesla's Terafab is expected to output 3000 wafers per month initially when the trial runs commence. It'll be some time before the factory achieves volume ramp, and that means that Tesla will still have to rely on other semiconductor manufacturers for their chips. Intel, on the other hand, has some crucial products in the line, such as 18A, 14A, and their iterations. 14A is going to be a major product, as this node is the one that is being eyed as the winner for Team Blue, with many customers in line. Although no big names have been announced yet, NVIDIA is expected to be one of them.
Both Intel and Tesla, they are TSMC's customer. Again, they are our competitors, and we view Intel as our formidable competitors and do not underestimate them. Having said that, there are no shortcuts. The fundamental rule of the foundry game never change.
They need the technology leadership, manufacturing excellence, and customer trust, and most of all, the service, which has been mentioned by Jensen. Well, thank you for his wording. Again, let me say that it takes 2-3 years to build a new fab. No shortcuts. It takes another 1-2 years to ramp it up. Again, that's a fundamental of foundry industry. Whether we try to win them back, actually, they are still our customer, and we are very confident in our technology position, and we work very hard to capture every piece of business possible.
C.C. Wei - TSMC Chairman & CEO
Next, C.C. shares some thoughts on Intel's EMIB technology. When asked about how he views TSMC's own packaging technology versus EMIB, he said that TSMC is already supplying the largest reticle-sized packages, and they are being used by the top chips in the industry. Despite that, he sees Intel EMIB as an attractive technology and believes that it's a welcoming technology, offering customers more choices.
Intel has been sharing more insights into its EMIB and EMIB-T advanced packaging solutions. The company has showcased the benefits of EMIB over TSMC's 2.5D packaging. EMIB aims to build chips of massive scale, while reducing the total cost and offering wider flexibility than other competing packaging technologies.
TSMC is supplying the largest reticle size packaging. Yes, we understand that our competitors offer very attractive technology, but we welcome that so our customer can have more choices, and then we can do more business with our customers.
C.C. Wei - TSMC Chairman & CEO
Moving to nodes, TSMC's N2 process technology has entered volume ramp since Q4 2025, and is said to be delivering good yields. The N2 node features the 1st Gen Nanosheet technology, and AMD's next-gen EPYC Venice CPUs based on the Zen 6 core architecture are the first to utilize the N2 process node, which is an enhanced version of the product.
The N2 family of nodes is expected to be a long-lasting product with multiple iterations. TSMC is also prepared to tackle supply chain issues such as the shortages related to vital gases and chemicals, including LPG, due to the ongoing Iran-US situation. The company has said that it currently has three months of LPG available at its disposal.
With that said, N2 is definitely going to be a vital node for AI as the Agentic AI frenzy continues. The node will also play a big role in the consumer segment, with Intel's next-gen Nova Lake and AMD's next-gen Ryzen platforms also leveraging N2P process technology.
Today, our new node, N2, has already entered high volume manufacturing in the fourth quarter of 2025 with good yield. N2 is ramping successfully in multi-phases at both Hsinchu and Kaohsiung site, supported by strong demand from both smartphone and HPC AI applications. With our strategy of continuous enhancement, such as N2P and A16, we expect our N2 family to be another large and long-lasting node for TSMC
C.C. Wei - TSMC Chairman & CEO
Lastly, C.C. mentioned their next-gen A14 (1.4nm) process technology, which is going to be another "Full-node stride" from N2. He also shared some initial aspects, such as a 10-15% speed improvement at the same power, 25-30% power improvement at the same speed, and a 20% bump in chip density. The A14 process technology is on track and expected to see volume production by 2028.
Featuring our second-generation nanosheet transistor structure, A14 will deliver another full-node stride from N2 with performance and power benefits to address the essential need for high-performance and energy-efficient computing.
Compared with N2, A14 will provide 10-15 speed improvement at the same power, or 25-30 power improvement at the same speed, and close to 20% chip density gain. Our A14 technology development is on track and progressing well. We are observing a high level of customer interest and engagement from both smartphone and HPC applications. Volume production is scheduled for 2028. Our A14 technology and its derivatives will further extend our technology leadership position.
C.C. Wei - TSMC Chairman & CEO
Based on this talk, it looks like TSMC remains quite confident in their ability as a chip foundry business, and also confident in their upcoming products, which will play a key role in the next phase of tech & AI.
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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