The Investment Commission yesterday approved a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) application to invest an additional US$3.5 billion in its Arizona subsidiary to manufactured advanced chips.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker’s board of directors last month approved the funding project after TSMC started moving manufacturing equipment into the fab in December last year in preparation for the production of 4-nanometer chips next year.
TSMC said it has also commenced the second phase of facility construction in Arizona.
Photo: Reuters
The second fab is to produce semiconductors using 3-nanometer technology in 2026. Altogether, TSMC plans to spend US$40 billion on the Arizona fabs, doubling its original investment of US$20 billion.
The US became the fastest-growing overseas investment destination for local enterprises last year, enjoying an annual growth rate of 128.32 percent to US$1.09 billion from 100 projects, the commission said in a statement.
Cloud-based server maker Wiwynn Corp (緯穎科技) plans to invest US$400 million on its US marketing subsidiary Wiwynn International Corp to meet robust demand from the US market, it said.
It approved that investment plan during yesterday’s meeting.
It also approved a plan from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler, to invest US$500 million indirectly in India to produce iPhones and smartphone components through its Foxconn Singapore Pte Ltd subsidiary.
The company was also granted approval to invest more than US$361 million indirectly in its Mexican subsidiary to make components used in electric vehicles through its Singaporean unit ECMMS Precision Singapore Pte Ltd, the commission said.
PharmaEssentia Corp (藥華醫藥) received permission to invest US$80 million in its Japanese subsidiary and US$200 million in a US subsidiary, as the company prepares to sell new drugs in the countries, it said.
The commission also approved Yunlin Holding GmbH’s plan to invest NT$29.23 billion (US$962.4 million) in offshore wind energy developer Yunneng Wind Power Co (允能), a subsidiary of Skyborn Renewable Taiwan Co (天豐新能源), to improve its financial structure.
The company is developing an offshore wind power project off Taiwan’s west coast, which is to comprise 80 wind turbine generators with a total capacity of 640 megawatts rated power.
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents would supplant smartphones as the center of people’s digital lives, fundamentally reshaping personal devices and driving a major computing upgrade cycle, Qualcomm Inc CEO Cristiano Amon said yesterday. In his keynote speech for this year’s Computex trade show in Taipei, Amon said that the rise of "agentic AI" — AI systems capable of reasoning, planning and carrying out tasks autonomously — would transform how people interact with technology across phones, PCs, vehicles and wearable devices. Describing the technology as the next major evolution in computing, Amon said that "2026 is the year of agents.” For decades, smartphones have sat
The average pay to employees by ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) was the highest among the companies listed on the local main board last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) ranked seventh, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said on Monday. Data compiled by the exchange showed ASE Technology, the world’s largest chip packaging and testing services provider, paid its employees an average of NT$6.28 million (US$199,746) last year, up 40 percent from a year earlier. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and the most profitable company in Taiwan, paid its employees NT$4.09 million on average, up