It is certainly a significant announcement by the Taiwanese chip manufacturer in its ongoing battle with rival Intel to make the world's fastest chips.
At a news conference TSMC executives said that the A16 chipmaking process had been developed much faster than expected - driven in no small part by the increased demand from AI chip firms. TSMC is a big supplier to the likes of Nvidia and Arm and said that they would likely be the first adopters of the technology.
The announcement is seen as countering Intel’s claim, made earlier this year, that it would shortly overtake TSMC with its new technology – the 14A.
And while Intel said that it would be using ASML's new ‘High NA EUV’ lithography tool machines to build 14A chips, TSMC said that it was unlikely to need these new machines which individually can cost almost $400,000.
TSMC also revealed that it has developed a new technology for suppling power to computer chips from the backside of the chip. This will help to speed up AI chips and will be, according to TSMC, available in 2026.
Now both companies will have to deliver on the claims made for these technologies, matching reality to their presentations.
