Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is to start building a new 1.4-nanometer fab next quarter with an anticipated production value of up to NT$500 billion (US$16.49 billion), the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday.
TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is working at full steam to push forward the construction of its new factories at home, rather than taking a slower approach as some media speculated, bureau Director-General Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said.
“Everything is on schedule. TSMC plans to start construction in the fourth quarter. It is planning a detailed construction schedule and arranging contractors to build the fab,” Hsu said.
Photo: CNA
Since TSMC is to utilize more advanced process technology than the 2-nanometer technology as originally planned, the new fab is expected to generate a production value of NT$500 billion, higher than an earlier estimate of NT$485.7 billion, Hsu said.
The fab is to create about 4,500 jobs, he added.
TSMC in May said it expected to start building a new fab, called Fab 25, in Taichung, with an aim of producing advanced chips in 2028 utilizing 1.4-nanometer technology, the most advanced technology.
The chipmaker plans to start volume production of 2-nanometer chips next quarter at fabs in Hsinchu and Kaohsiung, and produce 1.6-nanometer chips in the second half of next year at fabs in Kaohsiung amid robust demand for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.
TSMC is also expected to build an advanced technology facility in Tainan’s Shalun District (沙崙), Southern Taiwan Science Park Bureau Director-General Cheng Hsiu-jung (鄭秀絨) said.
The chipmaker’s capacity expansions for advanced packaging technology in the Southern Taiwan Science Park’s (南部科學園區) campus in Chiayi County’s Taibao City (太保) are at full swing, Cheng said, refuting media reports about a sudden halt.
The company is even trying to pull ahead of the construction schedule, she added.
Separately, companies based in the nation’s three major science parks are expected to generate record-high revenue of NT$5.5 trillion this year, National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) said at a news conference yesterday.
That would represent annual growth of 15.5 percent from NT$4.76 trillion last year.
Wu attributed the double-digit growth to the semiconductor industry’s strong growth momentum.
During the first half of this year, semiconductor companies in the science parks have seen revenue soar 34.33 percent annually to NT$2.27 trillion, council data showed.
Semiconductor companies were the major revenue contributors, making up 83 percent of the overall revenue of NT$2.74 trillion made by companies in the science parks during the first half.
Producers of computers and related components saw revenue sink 28.58 percent year-on-year to NT$89.93 billion in the first half, as some firms allocated production overseas in a bid to address geopolitical tensions and US tariffs, the council said.
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) said it expects peak season effects in the fourth quarter to continue to boost demand for passenger flights and cargo services, after reporting its second-highest-ever September sales on Monday. The carrier said it posted NT$15.88 billion (US$517 million) in consolidated sales last month, trailing only September last year’s NT$16.01 billion. Last month, CAL generated NT$8.77 billion from its passenger flights and NT$5.37 billion from cargo services, it said. In the first nine months of this year, the carrier posted NT$154.93 billion in cumulative sales, up 2.62 percent from a year earlier, marking the second-highest level for the January-September