Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is to build a wafer fab deploying 1 nanometer (nm) process technology at the Longtan (龍潭) campus of Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), Hsinchu Science Park Bureau Director-General Wayne Wang (王永壯) said yesterday.
The bureau completed a pilot project in the middle of last month for the third expansion phase of the Longtan Science Park (龍潭科學園區) in Taoyuan to accommodate the new TSMC plant, Wang told a news conference.
The pilot expansion project has been submitted to the National Science and Technology Council, which would next forward the project to the Cabinet for approval, Wang said.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
“The efforts by the government to push for the construction of TSMC’s 1-nanometer process fab are proceeding smoothly,” he added.
Local media reports have said that the Longtan park’s third expansion phase would cover 150 hectares.
As 90 percent of the land is privately owned, it would require a huge effort to expropriate the land needed, the reports said.
2-NANOMETER FAB
Meanwhile, a new expansion plan in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) passed its third review yesterday, clearing the way for its final passage during a general review early next year, which would allow TSMC to build a 2-nanometer fab by the middle of next year, the Central Taiwan Science Park Administration said yesterday.
The administration said in a statement that it would submit supplementary information about the second-phase expansion plan to the Environmental Protection Administration as soon as possible after receiving a written record of the review.
The administration aims to complete all administrative procedures and hand over the land to local foundry companies to build new factories by the middle of next year, it said.
It added that it plans to attract other technology firms to set up facilities in the park to support the expansion and development of the semiconductor industry in Taiwan.
The development project would create NT$485.7 billion (US$15.95 billion) in production value a year and 4,500 direct jobs, the statement said.
TSMC plans to start pilot production of 2-nanometer chips in the second half of 2024 and commence mass production in 2025.
Its development of 2-nanometer process technology is progressing well and is even a little ahead of its schedule, TSMC chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said in October.
Customer engagement with the 2-nanometer chips is comparable with their engagement with the company’s 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer chips, he said.
TSMC said its 2-nanometer technology would be the most advanced in terms of density and energy efficiency when it is introduced.
ARIZONA FAB
The company is scheduled to hold a “first tool-in” ceremony for its new Arizona fab today to mark the installation of the first batch of production equipment, with US President Joe Biden expected to attend the event.
The company is spending US$12 billion to build a 5-nanometer fab in Arizona, with mass production to start in 2024. It plans to introduce 3-nanometer process technology during the second phase of the Arizona investment.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending would extend into this year. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported a 39 percent rise in December-quarter revenue to NT$868.5 billion (US$26.35 billion), based on calculations from monthly disclosures. That compared with an average estimate of NT$854.7 billion. The strong showing from Taiwan’s largest company bolsters expectations that big tech companies from Alphabet Inc to Microsoft Corp would continue to build and upgrade datacenters at a rapid clip to propel AI development. Growth accelerated for
RSS