Overview: This Foundry Monthly Intelligence Report provides timely, always-on market intelligence to keep you aligned with the latest developments in the foundry ecosystem. It includes ad hoc deep dives into emerging trends and market shifts, along with concise analyst takeaways that deliver real-time, decision-ready insights to support strategic planning and execution.

Table of Contents

Robust Demand and Capacity Constraints Support Further Wafer Price Increases Among Foundries in H2 2026 and 2027

• TSMC and Samsung's 8-inch capacity cuts were the primary trigger for the 2026 price cycle. TSMC N3 accumulated 8-15% in 2026, while SMIC’s consecutive increases pushed 8-inch mature nodes up 10-20%, the most aggressive move among all foundries.
• TSMC's N3/N2 faces no meaningful relief despite a near-doubling of N2 capacity to 110-120 KWPM in 2027. Samsung is moving toward premium pricing on SF2/SF2Z anchored by HBM4 base-die and AI demand, while UMC targets 8-12% in specialty nodes, and GF and Intel Foundry are expected at 0-5%.

Meta and Google Restructure AI Silicon Roadmaps Amid Multi-Vendor Sourcing and Packaging Diversification

• Meta is accelerating its interim MTIA 500 and 600 developments following the cancellation of the 16-die Olympus project, reflecting an operational shift to unbundle its design process and increase core IP control.
• A multi-vendor evaluation is underway for the next-generation MTIA 600 back-end design. Meta is running parallel development tracks, evaluating incumbent partner Broadcom alongside Alchip, GUC, and MediaTek to reduce vendor lock-in.
• Hyperscalers are expanding packaging supply chains to secure execution certainty against TSMC CoWoS capacity constraints. Meta is now mandating dual-packaging proposals with Intel EMIB-T, while Google has solidified EMIB-T as the exclusive architecture for its TPU v9t platform.

Advanced Packaging Emerges as the Next AI Battleground in 2027–2028

• While TSMC remains the dominant supplier of advanced packaging in 2026 with 125KPWM CoWoS capacity, the industry's constraints are expanding beyond CoWoS capacity to HBM availability, ABF substrates.
• Intel's EMIB/Foveros strategy, together with capacity expansion by ASE/SPIL, Amkor, is reshaping the competitive landscape as AI packaging demand accelerates into 2027-2028.
• With AI processors requiring larger package sizes and more HBM stacks, we believe advanced packaging capacity will remain one of the industry's most critical bottlenecks through 2028, sustaining strong pricing power across the ecosystem.

A Thorough Look at Huawei Ascend 950 Series: Performance, Chip Architecture, & Wafer Supply/Demand Situation

• Compared to Ascend 910C, Huawei’s latest Ascend 950 series makes trade-offs b/w computing power, interconnect bandwidth, and more, exhibiting the shift in product strategy.
• The Ascend 950 series also features a brand-new chip architecture, caused by constraints from both foundry and OSAT.
• On the foundry side, it is estimated that Ascend AI ASICs may contribute 25%~35% share of SMIC 7nm (N+2) capacity by the end of 2026.

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