The government is to assist Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) search for a suitable site for an advanced wafer fab, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday.
Kung’s comments come amid claims from local residents that TSMC has agreed to abandon a planned expansion project in the Longtan (龍潭) section of Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區).
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip William Tseng (曾銘宗) asked the minister, who sites on TSMC’s board of directors, whether the government — the chipmaker’s single largest investor with a 6.38 percent stake — was aware of the Longtan project.
Photo: CNA
Kung said that the government would provide any assistance necessary to help TSMC locate an ideal place in Taichung or Kaohsiung for a wafer fab to make chips with technology more advanced than the 2-nanometer process.
The Hsinchu Science Park Bureau said that the Longtan expansion project covers a 158.59 hectare parcel for semiconductor firms to develop 2-nanometer or more sophisticated technologies.
The project is expected to create 5,900 jobs and generate NT$600 billion to NT$650 billion (US$18.6 billion to US$20.14 billion) in production value per year, it said.
The expansion is aimed at helping upgrade Taiwan’s industrial development, and several semiconductor firms had expressed their willingness to invest in the project, the bureau said.
However, the project has faced strong opposition from Longtan residents on environmental grounds. Several residents staged a protest in front of the bureau on Oct. 4, demanding a withdrawal of the plan.
A group opposed to the expansion wrote on social media that TSMC had expressed a willingness to abandon the project at a meeting with residents and Hsinchu Science Park Bureau representatives.
Kung said that he was not sure whether TSMC had yet proposed leaving the project to its board, while an official from the National Development Fund said the government would stay in contact with the chipmaker on the matter.
TSMC has yet to comment on the claims.
The semiconductor firm started mass production of the advanced 3-nanometer process in Tainan at the end of last year, and is developing the more advanced 2-nanometer process, which is slated to begin commercial production in Hsinchu in 2025, while production is also planned in Kaohsiung.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings’ planned acquisition of Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations has yet to enter the formal review stage, as regulators await supplementary documents, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday. Acting FTC Chairman Chen Chih-min (陳志民) told the legislature’s Economics Committee that although Grab submitted its application on March 27, the case has not been officially accepted because required materials remain incomplete. Once the filing is finalized, the FTC would launch a formal probe into the deal, focusing on issues such as cross-shareholding and potential restrictions on market competition, Chen told lawmakers. Grab last month announced that it would acquire
RSS