The administration of the Central Taiwan Science Park yesterday said it has received approval from the Taichung City Government to go ahead with its second-phase expansion, allowing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to begin the construction of a new 2-nanometer fab in June next year.
The expansion plan has been under multiple reviews over one-and-a-half years as the city government and Taichung residents worried that heavy consumption of water and electricity during the chip manufacturing process could pose a risk to supplies in the region.
With tailor-made supply plans under preparation, Taiwan Water Corp (台水) and Taiwan Power Co (台電) have promised that TSMC’s new factory would not lead to insufficient supply of water and electricity when it starts operations during a meeting yesterday with the officials from the Taichung Urban Development Bureau.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
As construction of the fab has been postponed multiple times due to city government reviews, the administration said it would speed up its efforts to clear the final hurdle at the Ministry of the Interior, a statement released by the administration said.
The administration’s goal is to complete all required procedures by the end of this year to facilitate land expropriation. The administration expects to hand over the land to TSMC by the end of June next year, the statement said.
The second-phase expansion is crucial for the nation’s semiconductor development as TSMC is to introduce more businesses in its supply chain to the region, the administration said.
The project is expected to generate NT$485.7 billion (US$15.25 billion) in production value a year and create 4,500 new jobs upon completion, it said.
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker which counts Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc as its key customers, is also building a 2-nanometer fab, dubbed Fab 20, in Hsinchu, with the aim of starting volume production in 2025.
The firm said its 2-nanometer technology would be the world’s first and most advanced when it is introduced in two years.
TSMC is adding a second 2-nanometer fab as the advanced technology has received strong customer interest.
The 2-nanometer technology would mainly be used for chips for smartphones and high-performance computing devices such as servers, TSMC said.
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