A plan by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to build a fab in Japan in a joint venture with a subsidiary of Sony Group Corp aims to reinforce ties with the Japanese firm, an industry expert said.
The plan differs from TSMC’s investments in China and the US, in which the chipmaker holds the entire stake, said Ray Yang (楊瑞臨), a supervisor at the Industrial Technology Research Institute’s (工業技術研究院) Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center.
TSMC’s wholly owned investments have prioritized proximity to its clients in the US and China, Yang said during an interview with the Central News Agency.
Photo: CNA
“This time, TSMC has changed course to set up a joint venture with Sony’s wholly owned subsidiary,” Yang said. “I think the chipmaker wants closer cooperation with its Japanese partner in specialty process development, as Sony is a leading contact image sensor supplier in the world.”
TSMC on Wednesday said that it would invest up to US$2.12 billion in the joint venture, called Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc (JASM), making it the majority shareholder. Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony, is to invest US$500 million. The factory is to be built in Kumamoto Prefecture.
Construction of the factory is set to begin next year and production is expected to begin in 2024. The planned fab would make 12-inch wafers using 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer technology, with a monthly capacity of 45,000 wafers, TSMC said.
Wholly owned factories allow TSMC to protect its intellectual property, Yang said, adding that the joint venture in Japan is expected to help the firm work closely with Sony, as well as the Japanese government and academia.
“I think JASM will play a critical role in Japan’s semiconductor industry,” he said.
Also on Wednesday, TSMC said it would build a new plant in Kaohsiung to focus on 7-nanometer and 28-nanometer chips. Construction of the plant is scheduled to begin next year and mass production is expected to start in 2024.
While TSMC did not disclose the financial terms for the Kaohsiung plant, its board approved a capital budget of about US$9.04 billion.
The plant would help TSMC diversify water supply risks amid worries about a long-term water shortage in Taiwan, said Arisa Liu (劉佩真), an economist with the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院).
TSMC has wafer plants in Hsinchu City, Taichung and Tainan.
The Kaohsiung City Government said it would start building two water recycling plants in 2023 to supply about 30,000 tonnes of water per day to TSMC.
The wafer plant is not expected to compete with households for water supply, the city government said.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said the city is preparing a plot that used to house a CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) naphtha cracker for the new wafer plant.
The plot is expected to be ready for construction in the middle of next year, Chen said.
The investment would enable the city to build a semiconductor industry cluster, which would help the nation to narrow the north-south development gap, he added.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
RSS