141–150 of 282 posts
> Microsoft said it does not plan to sell the chips Add it to the list of things you can't buy at any price, and can only rent. That list is getting pretty long, especially if you count "any electronic device you can't fully control or modify".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they “can’t make the chips fast enough” being TSMC’s second highest volume customer behind Apple and probably second in priority, what chance does Microsoft have getting enough of TSMCs capacity?
> what chance does Microsoft have getting enough of TSMCs capacity? Looking at their balance sheet: plenty. TSMC is all about pay to play. Apple is first in line because they’re willing to pay to be first in line. I have no doubt Microsoft can justify spending the money they save not buying nvidia into getting some priority access from TSMC. Also keep in mind Apple is now on 3nm so there’s likely spare 5nm.
Not a lot of information about the chips yet. About 100B transistors in the AI chip. For comparison, an RTX 4090 has 76B, and an H100 has about 80B. So the Maia chip is pretty massive.
This is like performance review based on written line of code.
Chip manufacturers (including Nvidia) really missed where the market was going if customers like Microsoft, Amazon, etc. feel the need to make their own chips.
AI, or creation of AI, will very soon leave the hands of common folks at this rate. The cost will soon unattainable.
This is likely to be cyclical though. Fast cars[1], large amounts of processing power[2], access to cryptographic algorithms, are all things that started out expensive to be on the cutting edge, some still are expensive on the cutting edge, but then became more affordable for the consumer over time. AI has already had explorations on training models with limited resources. It's feasible, just has tradeoffs that will…
It was only a matter of time. Google announced theirs years ago, Amazon announced theirs last year. Right now NVIDIA has the lead because they have the better software, but they can't make the chips fast enough. Will be interesting to see if their better software continues to keep them in the lead or if people are more interested in getting the capacity in any form.
If they “can’t make the chips fast enough” being TSMC’s second highest volume customer behind Apple and probably second in priority, what chance does Microsoft have getting enough of TSMCs capacity?
Why aren't any other companies entering this space? TSMC's growth and profits are immense, it's not like the market couldn't bear more competitors.
Also, the current situation is geopolitical insanity. It feels like China and the U.S. are on a path to war in the next decade or so. China is itching to retake Taiwan... and if you thought the U.S. fought a lot of wars over oil, there's NO WAY we wouldn't go to war to prevent all the world's most important semiconductors falling exclusively under PROC control. It's the 21st century, we would have no choice. I know that TSMC is diversifying and building fabs in the U.S. and Germany, and hopefully that will reduce the risk of war. But it's just nuts that this is even a risk. How does one company control so much of the global market?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they “can’t make the chips fast enough” being TSMC’s second highest volume customer behind Apple and probably second in priority, what chance does Microsoft have getting enough of TSMCs capacity?
It blows my mind that not only are Apple, Nvidia, and all other enormous "chip makers" fabless... but there's ONE single company actually making the majority of all their chips. Why aren't any other companies entering this space? TSMC's growth and profits are immense, it's not like the market couldn't bear more competitors. Also, the current situation is geopolitical insanity. It feels like China and the U.S. are on…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they “can’t make the chips fast enough” being TSMC’s second highest volume customer behind Apple and probably second in priority, what chance does Microsoft have getting enough of TSMCs capacity?
It blows my mind that not only are Apple, Nvidia, and all other enormous "chip makers" fabless... but there's ONE single company actually making the majority of all their chips. Why aren't any other companies entering this space? TSMC's growth and profits are immense, it's not like the market couldn't bear more competitors. Also, the current situation is geopolitical insanity. It feels like China and the U.S. are on…
TSMC is so dominant because they have very, very, deep institutional knowledge. Even if you have billions to invest it's not easy to create that, and definitely impossible to do it short term.
There's only 3 companies left chasing smaller nodes. Everyone else has given up and are focusing on revenue from high volume parts in older processes.