Samsung agreed with Dutch-based ASML to deploy extreme ultraviolet (EUV) equipment for mass production in their 7 nanometer processes.

As of 0135 GMT, the main TAIEX index gained as much as 0.9% to 8,753.46 points, its highest level since March 31.

Analyst Steve Mullane of BlueFin Research Partners said that TSMC is "planning to double the production starts" of Intel's XMM 7360 LTE modem in the current quarter. The analyst says that this "correlates with the timing of the Apple A10 processor production ramp in preparation for the iPhone 7 launch in September.

Chief Executive Officer Peter Wennink says most of his customers expect to incorporate EUV by 2019, and he's prepping for orders within the next year. "The industry needs EUV," he says.

On a positive note for TSMC, it looks like the company is gearing up for production in May of the "A10" processor for Apple's next flagship phone, presumably an "iPhone 7."

Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company hit a new 52-week high of US$25.80 on Mar 16, eventually closing at US$25.78.

"We believe Samsung, despite some recent delays, will still be the first mover to 10-nanometer technology," Mark. C. Newman, a senior analyst at Bernstein Research, wrote in a note to clients Thursday. "TSMC and Intel will soon follow, whereas Globalfoundries can hardly keep up. Samsung can still edge ahead of TSMC."

JP Morgan thinks TSMC has not lost its technological edge and Qualcomm will be coming back to the Taiwan manufacturer for 7nm in 2018.

"Samsung is the sole supplier for all Qualcomm future 14nm chipsets and modems," Warren Lau, an analyst with Maybank Kim Eng in Hong Kong, said in emailed comments to EE Times. "This is also the case at 10nm."

Samsung's chip capex was $13-13.5 billion last year and will be $11.5 billion this year estimates Srini Sundararajan at Summit Research.

When AMD unveiled its new Polaris architecture, there was still some question as to where the new graphics processors would be built. Historically, AMD has built GPUs with TSMC and used Globalfoundries for its CPUs and higher-end APUs, which use integrated graphics.

TSMC said it has started work on a 5nm process to push ahead its most advanced technology, yet the company remains undecided on the adoption of extreme ultraviolet lithography at that node.

Intel and TSMC have both started trial production for LG's own processor called Nuclun 2 using different methods.

Goldman estimates TSMC's Apple InFO business would take away only 2% of ASE's sales.

The big risk to Apple is that dual sourcing A9s in this fashion makes that task all the harder, which is one of the reasons why SoCs are rarely dual sourced.

Following the launch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus last month, it was discovered that Apple is dual sourcing the A9 chip for the new devices from both TSMC and Samsung, with the chips from the two companies measuring at slightly different sizes due to different processes used in manufacturing the chips.

Globalfoundries has affirmed that progress for the company's 14nm FinFET manufacturing is not only on track but is actually ahead of schedule and 14nm has so far managed to exceed plans for yield and defect density

Despite a late start in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's 16 nm FinFET process, TSMC appears to have captured up to a third of chip production for Apple's latest iPhones.

AMD has allegedly decided to delegate the responsibility of producing its hotly anticipated Zen CPU chips to TSMC on its 16nm FinFET process. This development has allegedly unfolded amidst AMD fears of Globalfoundries' slow 14nm FinFET yield and capacity progress.

Industry sources predicted that both Samsung and TSMC would mass produce the Pascal GPU, but the US firm chose only the Taiwanese firm in the end.

A copy of the written verdict in the second trial obtained by CommonWealth Magazine reveals that Liang's contribution to Samsung and harm to TSMC goes far beyond what had previously been suspected.

Intel is set slip to third place in a ranking of chip companies compiled by Semico Research, based on forecast capital expenditure in 2015.

Altera has been a key customer at TSMC for years, especially at the advanced tech node, accounting for around 3% of TSMC's revenue at 20/28 nodes.

NVIDIA reiterates for the second time in three months that TSMC is their primary manufacturing partner as they head towards 16nm, and even 10nm production.

Samsung was shy on specs, but said the process node will be in full production by the end of 2016, about the same time as its rival TSMC.

Foxconn boss Terry Guo said he pushed Apple to choose TSMC because Taiwanese companies must stick together against the "Korean Wave."

The company will begin volume production of its 16nm FinFET Plus (16FF+) in the middle of 2015 and break ground on a new 10nm fab next year.

The 930 is a huge leap forward in a very short timeframe.

TSMC fell for a fifth day in Taipei trading, its longest losing streak in two years, after at least four analysts published reports saying a stronger U.S. dollar may weaken smartphone chip demand.

RBC Capital Markets chip analyst Doug Freedman this morning writes that chip maker Nvidia, which makes no parts itself, appears to have moved some of its orders for making its chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) to Samsung Electronics, and that this may presage giving some foundry business to Intel.

TSMC will snatch more orders for Apple's A9 processor at the expense of Samsung, which is having yield problems with its most advanced technology node, according to sources interviewed by EE Times.

TSMC has been working hard on the next step, the 10nm node. Its management has said that 10nm would begin to make money late 2016.

Fifty years after Gordon Moore first described the trend that has driven technology, Intel says scaling is same as it ever was. But other chipmakers, who are struggling to realize the same benefits from good old-fashioned scaling, are increasingly looking for less-expensive alternatives.

Global Unichip and Credo Semiconductor have announced they are collaborating to enable the development of high-performance networking solutions that will be manufactured using TSMC's 16-nm FinFET+ process technology.