Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its board of directors has approved capital appropriations of US$4.49 billion, primarily to expand advanced technology capacities and to fund research and development.
The world’s biggest contract chipmaker said in a statement that it plans to use the capital to build fabs, to install and expand advanced and specialty technology capacities and to boost advanced chip packaging technology capacities.
Part of the capital has been earmarked for research and development, as well as to sustain capital expenditure, it said.
The chipmaker last month lowered its capital expenditure for this year to between US$10 billion and US$10.5 billion, from a previous estimate of between US$11.5 billion and US$12 billion, mostly due to equipment relocation.
TSMC told investors that it plans to begin production on the next-generation 5-nanometer process technology in the first half of next year, which would make it the world’s first foundry to offer such services.
TSMC last year led its peers in offering 7-nanometer technology, saying that it expects 7-nanometer chips to contribute more than 20 percent of its revenue in the fourth quarter of this year.
The nine-seat board also approved a proposal to tap Philip Wong (黃漢森) as corporate head of research, the statement said.
Wong’s appointment followed the retirement of TSMC chief technology officer Jack Sun (孫元成).
Wong is to report directly to Y.J. Mii (米玉傑), senior vice president of TSMC’s technology development, the statement said.
Wong, who holds a doctorate in electrical engineering from US-based Lehigh University, was a tenured professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University before joining TSMC and has 16 years of semiconductor industry experience at IBM Corp.
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last