TSMC might set up a price hike that could come straight for your next phone, laptop, or tablet

TSMC

My wallet flinched the second I saw the words “TSMC” and “price increase” in the same headline, and honestly, yours should too.

Turns out the company behind the silicon powering basically every flagship device out there, including Apple’s A-series and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors, is reportedly about to make all of it a little pricier.

Apple

So how big of a price hike are we actually talking about?

According to Nikkei Asia, later confirmed by Reuters, sources familiar with TSMC’s pricing strategy say the company plans to raise chip prices between 5% and 10%, depending on the customer and the chip, starting in 2027. 

That number only sounds forgettable until you run the math. A single 3nm wafer from TSMC (the one that is sliced into individual chips) currently runs around $19,500. Bump that up 10%, and you’re suddenly looking at roughly $21,450 per wafer. 

Now multiply that by the hundreds or thousands of wafers a company like Apple or Qualcomm contracts out each year, and that “small” percentage turns into a genuinely massive number. We could be talking about millions of dollars worth of additional cost here.

Qualcomm

TSMC hasn’t confirmed anything officially, telling reporters it doesn’t comment on pricing strategy, though a spokesperson did admit the company’s approach is “strategic, not opportunistic.”

Is this actually happening, or just rumor mill noise?

I wouldn’t bet against it. TSMC’s own CEO has already said prices could climb, pointing to AI chip demand that won’t be satisfied for years, while insisting increases won’t happen “abruptly.” TSMC has raised prices before, so this fits a pattern rather than breaking one. 

Manufacturers unwilling to eat the cost do have an alternative in Samsung’s 2nm process (the one that forms the base of the Exynos 2600 chipset), though switching foundries isn’t exactly a quick fix.

I’ve watched memory and storage prices already squeeze device costs upward this year. Stack a TSMC hike on top of that, and 2027 is shaping up to be an even more expensive year to upgrade anything with a good chip inside it.