Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to move in the first piece of manufacturing equipment for its first 2-nanometer fab in April, paving the way for the world’s biggest contract chipmaker to start producing 2-nanometer chips in 2025, Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) Bureau director-general Wayne Wang (王永壯) yesterday said.
TSMC’s 2-nanometer fab is in Hsinchu County’s Baoshan Township (寶山), where the science park administration is working on a second-phase development program, after it completes its first-phase program, where it houses TSMC’s new research and development center, Wang said during a ceremony celebrating the science park’s 43rd anniversary.
The infrastructure construction is proceeding smoothly, he said.
Photo: Reuters, Ann Wang
TSMC’s new 2-nanometer fab construction progress, as Wang described it, indicates that TSMC might be on track to start engineering a pilot run for its 2-nanometer technology next year, before entering a production pilot run and volume production in 2025. The chipmaker said in May that it planned to start building a second 2-nanometer fab next year in Taichung.
However, Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) told reporters earlier this week that TSMC could change its mind and consider building a more advanced 1.4-nanometer fab in Taichung, as the chipmaker suffered a setback in securing land to build a 1.4-nanometer fab in the Longtan (龍潭) section of Hsinchu Science Park, amid local protests over government appropriation of privately owned land for industrial use.
TSMC did not comment on whether it has altered its new fab construction plan in Taichung.
Photo: CNA
Separately, Wang told reporters that the production value of manufacturers in Hsinchu Science Park is set to recover to its peak level starting from next year, following a tough period this year when an economic slowdown and geopolitical tensions cut production value by 19 percent annually in the first half of this year to NT$668.4 billion (US$21.38 billion).
As demand returns, the decline has shrunk to about 10 percent, Wang said. He expects the recovery to extend into 2025, fueling explosive growth in production value to a new record high from companies in the park.
Additionally, the science park bureau said that the third building of the biological technology district within the science park would be completed in the second quarter of next year. It cost more than NT$3 billion, it said.
In addition, the first building of the “X” base is to be completed in the near future, Wang said.
The “X” base is designed to be a hub for the development of emerging technologies such as precision healthcare and generative artificial intelligence.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
Taiwan is attracting a growing number of foreign jobseekers as companies increasingly recruit overseas talent to ease labor shortages and expand global reach, recruitment platform 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said yesterday. More than 40,000 foreign nationals searched for jobs in Taiwan through the platform last year, a 28 percent increase from a year earlier, the company said. Malaysians accounted for the largest share of overseas jobseekers at 12.2 percent, followed by Indonesians at 11.9 percent and Vietnamese at 10.8 percent. Indonesian applicants surged more than 50 percent year-on-year, while Vietnamese jobseekers rose by more than 30 percent. Applicants from the
NO SHORTCUTS: Asked about Elon Musk’s Terafab initiative, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei said it takes two to three years to build a fab and another one to two to ramp it up Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its revenue growth forecast for this year to above 30 percent, up from the 25 percent it estimated three months earlier, citing extremely robust artificial intelligence (AI)-related chip demand. “Our customers and customers’ customers, who are mainly cloud service providers, continue to send us very positive signals and outlook,” TSMC chairman and CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at an earnings conference. The company also hiked its capital expenditure for this year toward the higher end of its forecast, or US$56 billion, as it aims to step up advanced chip capacity expansions, such as
RSS