Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, will increase capital expenditure this year on the back of strong demand for semiconductors that go into tablet devices and mobile phones.
Demand for 28-nanometer (nm) technology is “very much stronger than we expected,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer Morris Chang (張忠謀) said in Greater Tainan yesterday, referring to the company’s most-advanced production process at present.
This has spurred the company to commence production using 20nm process technology earlier than previously planned, he said.
Photo: Wang Chun-chung, Taipei Times
Chang made the remark as the company held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new manufacturing facility in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區). The Fab 14 Phase 5 manufacturing facility will be the firm’s second 20nm fab, which will begin commercial production in early 2014.
The first 20nm facility — Fab 12, Phase 6 at the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) — will commence production next year.
“Our mission is to be the trusted technology and capacity provider for the global logic integrated circuit [IC] industry for years to come,” Chang said at the ceremony. “In fulfilling this mission, we further solidify TSMC’s and Taiwan’s indispensable position in the world semiconductor industry.”
“This groundbreaking for the Fab 14 Phase 5 facility represents TSMC’s capability to develop leading-edge technology, build advanced capacity and satisfy customer demand. It also lays the foundation for TSMC’s next wave of growth,” he added.
Demand for chips that go into mobile devices is increasing as more people use phones and tablet computers to access the Internet, play games and watch video. US smartphone users now exceed 100 million, Comscore Inc said last month.
TSMC is currently unable to meet demand for its 28nm technology, company spokesperson Elizabeth Sun (孫又文) said.
With phases 1, 2, 3 and 4 now in operation, the Fab 14 manufacturing facility has the capacity to produce 550,000 12-inch wafers per quarter, making it the world’s largest 12-inch fab, the company said.
The annual output value of Fab 14 phases 1 through 4 is estimated to exceed US$6 billion, and TSMC expects the combined annual revenue of Phase 5 and the planned Phase 6 to reach a similar scale.
During the past 15 years, TSMC has invested NT$450 billion (US$15.3 billion) in 8-inch and 12-inch fabs and back-end packaging in the science park, creating 8,000 jobs, Chang said.
The output value of TSMC’s fabs in the science park totaled NT$180 billion last year, accounting for 42 percent of the company’s total revenue, Chang said.
The Fab 14 facility currently has about 4,600 employees. TSMC will invest NT$350 billion in Fab 14 phases 5 and 6 facilities, creating another 4,500 jobs in the future, Chang said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by