[News] TSMC Reportedly Eyes 20% CoWoS Price Hike, Skips Equipment Price Renegotiations Amid AI Demand Surge

What happened

According to supply chain sources cited by Commercial Times, as increasingly large AI accelerators strain advanced packaging capacity, TSMC's CoWoS supply remains tight, and TSMC is reportedly weighing price hikes of up to 20%, with some packaging lead times already stretching; Commercial Times reports that foundries and OSAT providers are considering another round of CoWoS price increases of 10%–20%. The stated backdrop is that advanced packaging demand is expanding beyond AI GPUs to server CPUs and custom ASICs, adding to a growing backlog of unfilled orders; longer AI chip testing times are an additional bottleneck, with Seoul Economic Daily citing Nomura Securities that NVIDIA Blackwell's final testing takes an estimated four times as long as Hopper's, while Rubin could require seven times as long. On equipment, Commercial Times reports equipment lead times have lengthened to six to eight months, up from three to six months, as customers prioritize securing deliveries over negotiating prices; TSMC, which typically negotiates price cuts or additional features at no extra cost, reportedly placed equipment orders at existing prices this year without seeking discounts or upgrades. Separately, according to Liberty Times, TSMC has finalized plans to raise wafer-out prices by 3%–6% starting January 2027, depending on the process node, with advanced nodes such as 2nm and 3nm seeing the steepest increases. On capacity, analysts cited by Commercial Times estimate monthly CoWoS capacity will exceed 130,000 wafers in 2026 and target 200,000 in 2027; Goldman Sachs projects TSMC's CoWoS capacity to reach 1.275 million wafers in 2026 (roughly 106,000 per month), before surging 114% YoY to 2.73 million in 2027 (227,500 monthly), and climbing another 27% to 3.48 million wafers in 2028 (nearly 290,000 per month). At its latest earnings call, Chairman and CEO C.C. Wei highlighted strong yields for its 5x reticle-size packaging, already in mass production, while confirming development of 9x and 14x solutions; the company is also advancing CoPoS to support larger packages at lower costs, with Commercial Times pointing to a 2028 timeline for 14x packaging. The price increases remain reported or planned and the article does not state they have been formally implemented.

Impact and signal

Affected components and suppliers

Source and time

Source: TrendForce · 10/26/2026 · View original source