TSMC receives 'super rush orders' from China customers willing to pay 40% premium on chips

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TSMC has reportedly received a ton of "super rush orders" from mainland Chinese customers, who are looking to stock up on chips so fast they're willing to pay a 40% premium on them.

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The Chinese companies buying chips made at TSMC are expecting a big impact from the 2024 US presidential election to have (more) negative effects on China's access to the latest chips, according to CNyes.

In a new report picked up by the site, "people familiar with the matter" said that TSMC's excellent gross profit margin for Q2 2024 was "unexpectedly" driven by a large number of orders from mainland China, many of which were super-urgent orders.

TSMC's mainland customers have been stocking up on chips over the on-going rising tensions between the US and China escalate, with the upcoming 2024 US presidential election throwing things into overdrive. TSMC's main mainland customers include the likes of Bitmain, Alibaba T-Head, and ZTE.

• Read more: NVIDIA working on B20 AI GPU for China: compliant with US regulations, enters production soon

The latest AI GPU that we've heard is going to China is the rumored NVIDIA B20 AI GPU, which will be compliant with US regulations and entering production soon. NVIDIA's new B20 AI GPU is expected to have over 1 million B20 AI GPUs shipped this year, seeing NVIDIA rake in $12 billion from B20 AI GPU sales to China alone.

NVIDIA doesn't want to give up turf in China, so it is adjusting its AI GPU specifications to skirt around US sanctions that are constantly increasing and squeezing companies (it's not just affecting NVIDIA, but AMD, Intel, and others, and also not just China, either).