On a slightly more serious note, take a look at these recent articles on TSMCโs concept AR glasses. Then ask yourself: is it really just a coincidence that weโve now confirmed a collaboration with Yu-Hsin Layout Technology - a company that happens to count TSMC as one of its major clients?
One of the standout features of these AR glasses is an
ultra-low-power processor, which, of course, just happens to be right in Akida/Picoโs wheelhouse.
Now, while these articles only discuss TSMCโs concept glasses for now, if they ever move to production, it would effectively place us toe-to-toe with Qualcomm in the smart glasses arena (assuming they incorporate our technology).
And letโs be honest - if battery life becomes the battleground, weโre not exactly walking in unarmed.
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Smart glasses with augmented reality functions look more natural than VR goggles, but today they are heavily reliant on a phone for compute and next-gen communication.
semiengineering.com
Original Article by SemiVision Research
tspasemiconductor.substack.com
TSMC will also be mass producing the chips in 2027 that will go into APPLE's smart glasses.
So not only are they working on their own concept glasses, but in addition to that, they're manufacturing the chips for Apple's glasses.
What are the chances of us winding up in both sets of glasses?
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Next-Gen Chips Powering Future Smart Glasses and AI
Posted on June 2, 20251 min Read
Apple is making significant strides in chip development for its future devices, including its highly anticipated smart glasses, artificial intelligence (AI) servers, and next-generation MacBooks.
According to recent reports, the company is focusing on creating specialized processors to power its smart glasses, which will be equipped with multiple cameras and energy-efficient components. These chips are based on Apple Watch technology, ensuring lower power consumption while delivering high performance.
The chips will be manufactured by Taiwanโs TSMC and are expected to enter mass production by 2027.
In addition to smart glasses, Apple is also working on new processors for its Macs, including the M6 and M7 chips.
Apple is developing specialized chips for smart glasses, AI servers, and new MacBooks to improve power efficiency and advance functionality.
www.telecomreviewasia.com
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Apple Inc.'s is pushing the boundaries of its custom silicon efforts, developing next generation chips designed to power a range of future products including advanced Mac models, AI servers, and most notably, its long anticipated smart glasses. According to a recent Bloomberg report by Mark...
nexstale.com
I am surprised that no one has yet come forward to challenge Bravoโs claim that TSMC are currently working on their own concept AR glasses, which - she then speculated - would likely incorporate our technology.
TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is the worldโs largest semiconductor manufacturer and contract chipmaker. Their business model is that of a โdedicated foundryโ, which means they only produce chips for other companies rather than design and manufacture their own chips.
Q1/2025 saw TSMCโs market share of the global pure play wafer foundry business rise to a whopping 67.6%, while its nearest competitor Samsung came in as a distant second with a market share of only 7.7%.(
https://focustaiwan.tw/business/202506140017)
Fabless companies (that design chips but lack their own manufacturing facilities) such as Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, Broadcom, MediaTek etc find TSMCโs advanced and continuously innovative technologies, quality (-> superior yield rates) and reliability unmatched, and use TSMC as their foundry of choice, either exclusively or at least partly. Even select IDMs (Integrated Device Manufacturers that design
and produce their own chips) like Intel have outsourced some of their chips to be manufactured by their competitor TSMC.
Incidentally, Google announced recently that they will switch to TSMC for their Tensor G5 chip - after Samsung manufactured the first four Tensor chip generations between 2021 and 2024 - which reportedly came as a total shock to executives at the South Korean foundry.
With TSMCโs strategic 2024 rebranding as Foundry 2.0, TSMC Chairman and CEO C.C. Wei redefined the foundry industry as not merely focussing on chip production but to further include advanced packaging technologies, testing, mask making etc.
However, it struck me as very odd and improbable when I read in Bravoโs posts that TSMC had allegedly ventured into the AR wearables product design business overnight.
So I had a closer look at what she referred to as โrecent articlesโ that โdiscuss TSMCโs concept glassesโ.
Liz Allan, the author of the quoted Semiconductor Engineering article who wrote โIn terms of custom products, TSMC recently showed a concept for AR glassesโ, appears to have either poorly worded what she wanted to express or misunderstood the content of the TSMC slide she used as Fig. 2 of her article.
I checked out her LinkedIn profile and was astonished to find out that someone with a background in โjournalism, copywriting, creative writing, and editingโ but no formal technical education or practical work experience in the semiconductor industry could actually land a job as technology editor (!) with Semiconductor Engineering. GenAI to the rescue?! Anyway, not exactly a reliable source, Iโd say.
Leveraging a background in journalism, copywriting, creative writing, and editing toโฆ ยท Experience: Semiconductor Engineering ยท Education: Auckland University of Technology ยท Location: Barrington ยท 500+ connections on LinkedIn. View Elizabeth Allanโs profile on LinkedIn, a professional community...
www.linkedin.com
And contrary to what Bravo claimed, neither the article by SemiVision Research nor the Reddit post mention anything about TSMCโs alleged โconcept AR glassesโ. They simply highlight the important role TSMC will play in manufacturing next-Gen chips for future AR wearables thanks to the innovative and highly advanced silicon technologies the worldโs leading foundry is able to offer its clients:
Anyway, itโs always advisable to check the original source: As referenced, the slide โSeamless, Immersive and Stylish AR - Enabled by Adoption of More Advanced Si Technologiesโ [Si = Silicon] was part of a TSMC presentation at the 2025 North America Technology Symposium.
You can find the recording here:
https://www.tsmc.com/english/node/223
Click on the picture of Kevin Zhang to start his ~17 min โSemiconductor Market Outlookโ presentation, which he begins by stating that he has been in the semiconductor industry for three decades, but has never felt more excited about its future. He then goes on to talk about the โmarket trendโ and the impact that AI has had since 2024 by โrapidly shaping the landscape of semiconductor industry [sic]โ, showing a slide titled โAI Fuels Exponential Data Center Growth - Strong AI Data Center Demandโ.
For edge devices (smartphone, PC and IoT), Zhang predicts a mild growth in 2025.
Here are some of the slides from that April 2025 presentation:
It is in this market outlook context that the slide about the number of/kind of chips required for future AR glasses needs to be viewed.
The slide directly preceding it is that of a person wearing bulky XR Goggles:
Kevin Zhang comments (from 14:09 min):
"Can you wear this devices [sic] for 8 hours?
It's bulky, it's heavy. So I think we need [to] achieve a 10x improvement. Literally, we need a 10x improvement, in term of battery life, in term of the weight, in term of all the form factor we need a 10x improvement.
[At this point, the presentation moves to its last slide.]
To achieve that goal, to go really, to drive that device into so-called "seemless, immersive and stylish AR glasses" you need a lot of innovation. Underneath of this innovation powered by [??? logic??? unintelligible to me] from processor, energy-efficient processor to energy-efficient connectivity to all kind of sensor.
So again, this is another example to show we have so many opportunity ahead of us continue to drive the silicon application."
To sum it up:
In this presentation, TSMC let the world know that they are extremely confident the future will continue to be bright for them due to the projected stellar growth of the semiconductor market over the coming years, fuelled by the insatiable demand of advanced silicon technology chips for diverse applications, especially for HPC (high-performance computing).
So basically a foreseeable futureโs gold mine for TSMC as the worldโs leading dedicated foundry.
It is in this โmarket trendโ context that the slide depicting a pair of generic AR glasses was shown to give the audience a better idea of how many different kind of advanced technology chips will be required to power future "Seamless, Immersive and Stylish AR" glasses that will vastly improve today's SWaP options.
At the same time, that presentation slide signals companies developing such AR wearables that they can continue to count on TSMCโs expertise, innovation and reliability to turn their present and future concepts into reality.
What the slide
didnโt do was reveal that TSMC had suddenly ventured into a totally new field of business, namely product design of wearables, and were now working on their own brand of AR glasses.
Besides, we can safely assume THAT unexpected disclosure would have been all over the (semiconductor industry) news and in addition would have been preceded by rumours and relevant job adsโฆ
thanks.โฆ.
