Riding the popularity of AI applications, production capacity for advanced processes at less-than-3 nm is still tight, according to industry chatter. The foundry has reportedly told customers to expect higher quotes for four straight years, from 2026 to 2029.

The new 2026 pricing is expected to kick in on 1 January 2026, which is a tidy way to start the year by sending procurement teams into therapy. Analysts reckon it could prop up what is usually a soft first quarter and keep revenue charging.

TSMC is due to hold a briefing on 15 January 2026, with the market watching the first-quarter 2026 outlook and any signs of formalised price rises. The same optimistic crowd expects a “low season” that still looks suspiciously busy.

The story being pushed is that big customers are lining up new platforms, with Nvidia and Super Micro in the mix. Non-Apple customers, such as Broadcom, are expanding into AI applications, keeping sub-3nm lines in short supply.

On pricing, industry talk says TSMC has been pressing customers to clarify real demand, then pointing to four consecutive years of increases. Even with those increases, customers are reportedly still aggressively booking capacity because the AI arms race is not slowing.

For 2026, the rise is expected to be a single-digit percentage increase, reflecting high production costs and limited capacity. Individual customers are apparently seeing different treatment depending on volume and commercial demand.

Research houses and analysts are forecasting 2026 increases of between three per cent and 10 per cent, with variations by process. The expectation is that pricing ends up higher than 2025 levels across the advanced portfolio.

Some analysts are pushing the opposite angle, arguing that TSMC’s 3nm supply could outpace demand and that pricing might still rise by only three per cent next year. TSMC’s public line remains the same: “the company does not comment on price issues”.

TSMC said at the time: “The company's pricing strategy has always been strategy-oriented, not opportunity-oriented, and we will continue to work closely with customers to provide value”. Customers, meanwhile, keep booking advanced capacity because nobody wants to be the one stuck on last year’s node.