On Monday Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Supplier TSMC will undergo a Major Management Change in 2018 as Founding Chairman is set to Retire." Late yesterday TSMC's retiring Morris Chang sat down for a farewell interview and talked about Samsung being the one that they'll be keeping an eye going forward and they'll continue their fight to retain Apple as their number one customer.

The Nikkei Asian Review reports that "After its annual general meeting next June, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the sole chip supplier to Apple's new iPhones, will face new challenges from rivals without its 86-year-old founder, Morris Chang, at the helm for the first time since the company was established in 1987.

The world's largest contract chipmaker by revenue and market share has benefited from a healthy demand on the need for chips in smartphones and next-generation technologies, including connected devices and artificial intelligence.

Chang has indicated that the biggest challenge the company faces after his retirement next year will come from competition rather than market conditions, as chips remain an essential component serving as the brains for various electronics.

While Chang appeared to dismiss imminent Chinese threat as a possible near-term scenario, he was much more cautious when it came to locking horns with Samsung Electronics of South Korea on cutting-edge semiconductor technology.

"There is no way to be sure that we still stay ahead. We try our best. We work our hardest. We think the hardest," Chang said in the interview when asked whether TSMC will overpower Samsung in advanced 7-nanometer chips due to come out next year."

It was a good question because there's already a rumor that Apple will at least be testing Samsung's 7nm processor with extreme ultraviolet technology. So yes, the battle will be intense for this next step in processors for future iPhones.

The Nikkei further noted that "This year TSMC is manufacturing core processor chips for the iPhone 8 and iPhone X range with its 10-nanometer technology.

TSMC and Samsung have been battling for orders from first-tier customers such as Apple and Qualcomm. One key to winning the hearts of these top companies is the ownership of the most advanced chip technology."

We noted in June that Samsung had lost some of Qualcomm's business for 7nm already putting their business into crisis mode. I'm sure that's why they're doubling their efforts to win back Apple for 7nm and giving them a price break to do so.

The Nikkei added that "The Taiwanese chip maker has dominated orders for core processors for Apple's iPhone range this year and last year, while Samsung managed to win some orders from Qualcomm for baseband chips since 2015. Baseband chips allow smartphones to make phone calls.

Mark Li, a Hong Kong-based analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, said that Samsung may indeed have an opportunity to fight it out over technology with TSMC over the next two years.

"When TSMC and Samsung begin to use advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography technology to make 7-nanometer chips in late 2018 or in 2019, Samsung and TSMC may have an equal chance to win the battle," Li said, adding that Samsung has continued to invest significantly in its foundry business, even though it previously has not been performing well.

For more of this interesting interview, read the full Nikkei Asian Review here.

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