Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June.
In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well.
TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the more sophisticated 3nm, 2nm and A16 processes in 2028.
Photo: CNA
The third fab is planned to start production of chips using 2nm or more advanced processes, with production beginning by the end of the decade, TSMC said last year.
However, Chinese-language Economic Daily News at the weekend reported that TSMC had decided to move the schedule of the third fab to one to 1.5 years earlier due to pressure from US President Donald Trump’s administration amid his “made in America” push.
The report said that TSMC would likely break ground on the third fab in June and invite US government officials to a ceremony to demonstrate the chipmaker’s dedication to expanding its investments in the US.
The trial run of the third fab could start in early 2027 and begin commercial production in 2028, the report said.
The discussions on the third fab schedule did not take place during the company’s latest board meeting in Arizona on Wednesday last week, the report said.
It was the first time TSMC had held a board meeting in the US, and it took place amid Trump’s recent threats to hit Taiwanese semiconductors with huge tariffs.
However, the company board did not discuss new investments during its latest meeting, contrary to market expectations.
The report also said TSMC has considered building a more advanced 3D chip-on-wafer-on-substrate integrated circuit packaging plant in the US.
TSMC has also been the subject of other rumors, including whether it would acquire a stake in US chipmaker Intel Corp’s fab operations through a technology transfer or cash injection.
Market analysts said that technology transfers could lead to TSMC’s technological secrets being leaked.
RESERVES ADEQUATE: The central bank governor rejected claims that Taiwan was facing a cash shortage, saying that its financial system had ample savings The New Taiwan dollar’s 3 percent fall this year despite record exports and a widening trade surplus stems from foreign investors cashing in on the local stock market’s technology-driven rally and moving funds overseas, central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told lawmakers yesterday. The NT dollar has become one of Asia’s weakest-performing major currencies this year. Foreign investors have reaped substantial gains from Taiwan’s surging stock market, prompting them to sell shares and rebalance their portfolios, Yang told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee in Taipei. Their withdrawals have added to downward pressure on the NT dollar, offsetting support
‘ON SCHEDULE’: Chief executive officer Rick Tsai said that TSMC ‘remains our most important partner’ as MediaTek seeks to meet robust customer demand Chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it has secured a second customer for its customized artificial intelligence (AI) accelerator for data centers, while volume production of a second-generation chip for an existing customer is on track for early 2028, potentially easing market concerns about possible delays. This is a new customer and, crucially, not from China, MediaTek said. The remarks were meant to dismiss speculation that ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動), the parent company of TikTok, was the second customer for MediaTek’s new customized AI application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) business. “It is on track, on schedule. We understand there is some noise about the
ROOM TO GROW: The company’s biggest bottleneck is still space, chief financial officer Joseph Tung said, adding that it was scouting existing factories to acquire ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday raised its annual capital expenditure budget for the third time to US$11.5 billion, driven by expectations that customer demand next year would continue to outpace capacity, particularly for its leading-edge advanced packaging (LEAP) technologies used in artificial intelligence (AI) chips. ASE, the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, plans to add US$1 billion to its US$10.5 billion outlay on capacity expansion. About 60 percent of the US$500 million equipment budget would be allocated for LEAP and 40 percent for mainstream packaging technology capacity, ASE chief financial officer Joseph Tung (董宏思) told an online investors’
OUTLOOK: Tech stocks worldwide have come under selling pressure ever since last month, and Taiwan’s stock market is not expected to be spared, an analyst said The TAIEX is expected to face heavy downward pressure today after American depositary receipts of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday plunged 5.95 percent, tracking a broader sell-off in US tech stocks on Wall Street amid concerns over massive artificial intelligence (AI) spending. Disappointing sales at some US technology companies spurred the worst drop for stocks since June, with the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite Index falling 2.86 percent on Friday, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 7.20 percent and the S&P 500 fell 1.8 percent, breaching its 100-day moving average. Chipmaker Intel Corp and social media firm
RSS