Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that Japan-based Denso Corp will take a minority stake in its Japanese venture with Sony Semiconductor Solution Corp, a partnership that is to build a plant in Japan amid a scarcity of chips for automobiles.
With an investment of US$350 million, Denso would hold a more than 10 percent stake in Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc (JASM) in Kumamoto Prefecture, TSMC said in a statement.
“Semiconductors are becoming increasingly important in the automotive industry as mobility technologies evolve, including automated driving and electrification,” Denso chief executive officer Koji Arima said in the statement. “Through this partnership, we contribute to the stable supply of semiconductors over the medium to long term and thus to the automotive industry.”
Photographer: I-Hwa Cheng/Bloomberg
Construction of the new fab is to begin this year, with production to begin by the end of 2024, TSMC said.
TSMC plans to enhance JASM’s capabilities with 12-nanometer and 16-nanometer process technologies in addition to the previously announced 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer technologies, it said.
The new facility would increase monthly capacity to 55,000 12-inch wafers, it said.
Capital expenditure for the new fab is estimated to be US$8.6 billion, TSMC said, adding that it would create about 1,700 jobs.
TSMC also said it is recruiting a business intelligence analyst to help collect data regarding political economics for internal analysis.
It is the first time that the firm has recruited for such a position as geopolitical issues become more important for multinational enterprises.
TSMC three years ago hired Peter Cleveland to enhance its communications with government agencies in the US.
Cleveland is a vice president of TSMC who directs global policy.
Its board of directors yesterday approved the distribution of a NT$2.75 per share cash dividend for last quarter.
The board approved distribution of performance bonuses and profit sharing totaling NT$71.2029 billion (US$2.55 billion) for last year and approved capital appropriations of US$20.94 billion.
To finance TSMC’s capacity expansion and pollution prevention related expenditure, the board approved the issuance in Taiwan of up to NT$60 billion of unsecured corporate bonds and up to US$1 billion of US dollar-denominated unsecured corporate bonds.
The board approved the issuance of 1.387 million shares as restricted stock awards for employees to attract and retain executives and talent, and to link compensation with shareholders’ interests and environmental, social and corporate governance achievements.
To offset dilution from the increase in shares due to the issuance, the board approved a program for the company to buy back its common shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The board approved the issuance of no more than 2.96 million common shares for restricted stock awards, with the plan to be presented to shareholders at the annual meeting on June 8 for approval.
SECOND-RATE: Models distilled from US products do not perform the same as the original and undo measures that ensure the systems are neutral, the US’ cable said The US Department of State has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it said are widespread efforts by Chinese companies, including artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek (深度求索), to steal intellectual property from US AI labs, according to a diplomatic cable. The cable, dated Friday and sent to diplomatic and consular posts around the world, instructs diplomatic staff to speak to their foreign counterparts about “concerns over adversaries’ extraction and distillation of US AI models.” Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive ones to lower the costs of training a powerful new
Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have repeatedly hit new highs, but an equity analyst said the stock’s valuation remains within a reasonable range and any pullback would likely be technical. The contract chipmaker’s historical price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has ranged between 20 and 30, Cathay Futures Consultant Co (國泰證期) analyst Tsai Ming-han (蔡明翰) told Central News Agency. With market consensus projecting that TSMC would post earnings per share of about NT$100 (US$3.17) this year, supported by strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and the stock currently trading at a P/E ratio of below 25, Tsai said the valuation
The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has triggered a seismic reshuffling of global equity markets, with Taiwan and South Korea muscling past European nations one by one. With its stock market now valued at nearly US$4.3 trillion, Taiwan surpassed the UK, Europe’s biggest market, earlier this month, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. South Korea is about US$140 billion away from doing the same. The tech-heavy Asian markets have shot past Germany and France in the past seven months. The shift is largely down to massive gains in shares of three companies that provide essential hardware for AI: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電),
The US Department of Commerce last week ordered multiple chip equipment companies to halt shipments of certain tools to China’s second-largest chipmaker, Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd (華虹半導體), its latest action to slow the country’s development of advanced chips, two people familiar with the matter said. The department sent letters to at least a handful of companies informing them of restrictions on tools and other materials destined for two Hua Hong facilities US officials believe make China’s most sophisticated chips, the people said. Top US chip equipment companies Lam Research Corp, Applied Materials Inc and KLA Corp, each of which has significant
RSS