TSMC Plans Up to 20% CoWoS Price Hike Amid AI Packaging Shortage
TSMC is reportedly preparing a price increase of up to 20% for its CoWoS advanced packaging services as AI demand outstrips supply. Extended equipment lead times and the lower throughput of larger packages are exacerbating the shortage, leading foundries and OSATs to anticipate significant cost hikes across the industry.
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Rohan Paul (@rohanpaul_ai) · 2026-10-26 23
TSMC is reportedly preparing another CoWoS price rise of up to 20% as AI packaging demand outruns supply.
CoWoS (Chip on Wafer on Substrate), joins an AI processor to its high-bandwidth memory on one densely wired base.
Demand has spread from GPUs to server CPUs and custom ASICs, so foundries and packagers expect 10% to 20% increases.
Supply can’t jump quickly, since equipment lead times stretched from 3-6 months to 6-8 months, and tool buyers no longer haggle.
Larger packages will deepen the squeeze, because they cut each tool’s hourly output, so even flat chip volumes need more machines.
They keep growing: TSMC chairman C.C. Wei says packages 5 times the largest printable chip are in mass production at excellent yields, with 9x and 14x planned.
