AI 内存短缺波及任天堂卡带：主要 ROM 芯片供应商 Macronix 退出游戏业务
Nintendo's biggest ROM chip supplier is bowing out of the business
Macronix 在第三季度财报中宣布 ROM 芯片生产“已走到尽头”，将“逐步与游戏行业脱钩”，而分析师 David Gibson 指出它是任天堂实体游戏卡带的“主要内存芯片制造商”。Macronix 的 ROM 业务过去一年萎缩 39%，目前仅占其业务的 5%，产能正被 NOR、NAND 内存和 eMMC 等更赚钱的芯片挤占。其产能停留在每月 25,000 片 12 英寸晶圆，计划新增的 12 亿美元产能需要一年以上才能投产。
正文
For years, the AI industry's insatiable demand for memory and storage has had plenty of knock-on effects on the price and availability of PC components like RAM, SSDs, and GPUs. Now those shortages are also squeezing the supply of ROM chips that power physical Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 game cartridges.
Chip manufacturer Macronix announced in its third-quarter earnings report that the company's production of ROM chips "has reached its end" and that it will begin "gradually decoupling from the game industry," as reported by Taiwanese news site BigGo Finance. That could be an issue for Nintendo, which analyst David Gibson notes uses Macronix as its "main memory chip maker" for physical game cartridges.
That ROM production—which has shrunk 39 percent in the last year and now represents just 5 percent of Macronix's business—is being crowded out by production of more lucrative, in-demand chips like NOR- and NAND-based memory and eMMCs, the company said. With Macronix's production capacity stuck at 25,000 12-inch wafers a month—and $1.2 billion in planned new capacity taking a year or more to spin up—less profitable ROM chips are taking up wafer space that can earn more through other types of chips.
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