Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that three new plants in Kaohsiung, Japan and the US would start production in 2024, as it accelerates its capacity expansion to cope with growing semiconductor demand.
Apart from the two fabs that are under construction in Arizona and in Kumamoto, Japan, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker plans to start building a new fab in Kaohsiung in the second half of this year, TSMC vice president Y.L. Wang (王英郎) said at the firm’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu.
The Kaohsiung fab, dubbed Fab 22, would produce 7-nanometer and 28-nanometer chips once it begins operations in 2024, Wang said.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
The Arizona fab is to make 5-nanometer chips and the Kumamoto fab is to produce chips using specialty process technologies, he said.
To satisfy customer demand, TSMC is not only increasing leading-edge technology capacity, but also mature-node technologies, Wang said.
TSMC expects its advanced technology capacity to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 70 percent from 2018 to this year, thanks to robust demand for chips used in smartphones and high-performance computing devices such as servers, Wang said.
.Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
This year alone, the company’s 5-nanometer chip capacity would more than quadruple from two years earlier, he said.
On top of that, TSMC plans to produce 3-nanometer chips in the second half of this year, Wang said, adding that 3-nanometer capacity is expected to increase rapidly at its Tainan fabs to cope with customer demand.
Because of substantial customer demand for 3-nanometer chips, the company’s engineering capacity is tight, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the symposium.
The chipmaker plans to produce next-generation 2-nanometer chips at new factories in Hsinchu, Wang said.
TSMC is also stepping up its efforts to expand specialty technology capacity to meet rising demand for image sensors and radio frequency chips, Wang said.
Capital investment for specialty technologies would grow about 4.5-fold compared with the average outlay over the past three years, he said.
That would boost the capacity contribution from specialty technologies to about 63 percent of total wafer capacity this year, compared with 45 percent in 2018, he said.
The chipmaker has been expanding capacity faster in the past few years with an average of six factories built each year from 2018 to this year, compared with two factories from 2017 to 2019, Wang said.
However, TSMC said that chip manufacturing costs are rising rapidly, as China, Japan, the EU and the US are pushing to localize chip manufacturing to boost the resilience of their chip supply amid geopolitical tensions.
It is going to be costly if manufacturers reverse the globalization that has created economic benefits, Wei said.
In addition, TSMC has been making chips using specialty technologies at existing factories without the burden of depreciation and amortization costs, he said.
To make enough specialty technology chips to meet rising demand for vehicle chips and other applications, TSMC is building new factories, but would charge more for the chips due to depreciation and amortization costs, as well as the high cost of equipment tools, he said.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
ABOVE LEGAL REQUIREMENT: The Ministry of Economic Affairs is prepared if LNG supply is disrupted, with more than the legal requirement of 11 days of inventory Taiwan has largely secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies through May and arranged about half of June’s supply, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Since the Middle East conflict began on Feb. 28, Taiwan’s LNG inventories have remained more than 12 days, exceeding the legal requirement of 11 days, indicating no major supply concerns for domestic gas and electricity, Kung said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. The ministry aims to increase the figure to 14 days by the end of next year, he said. While one or two LNG or crude oil shipments for May
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
RSS