People play video games on the first day of the Tokyo Game Show at Makuhari Messe in Chiba yesterday. The show runs through Sunday.
Photo: AFP
PULLING AHEAD: TSMC aims to start production at the Taichung fab in 2028 using its most advanced technology, while 1.6nm chips would be made in Kaohsiung next year 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
Samsung Electronics Co shares jumped 4.47 percent yesterday after reports it has won approval from Nvidia Corp for the use of advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which marks a breakthrough for the South Korean technology leader. The stock closed at 83,500 won in Seoul, the highest since July 31 last year. Yesterday’s gain comes after local media, including the Korea Economic Daily, reported that Samsung’s 12-layer HBM3E product recently passed Nvidia’s qualification tests. That clears the components for use in the artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators essential to the training of AI models from ChatGPT to DeepSeek (深度求索), and finally allows Samsung
Taiwan has imposed restrictions on the export of chips to South Africa over national security concerns, taking the unusual step of using its dominance of chip markets to pressure a country that is closely allied with China. Taiwan requires preapproval for the bulk of chips sold to the African nation, the International Trade Administration said in a statement. The decision emerged after Pretoria tried to downgrade Taipei’s representative office and force its move to Johannesburg from Pretoria, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said. The move reflects Taiwan’s economic clout and a growing frustration with getting sidelined by Beijing in the diplomatic community. Taiwan
CABLE NUMBERS: Microsoft said it is not worried about the connectivity resilience of its data centers, as Taiwan has more submarine cables than most people imagine Microsoft Corp yesterday said it plans to expand its data center deployment and artificial intelligence (AI) services in Taiwan to match fast-growing demand from local vertical industries as AI applications gain traction. The Redmond, Washington-based cloud service provider enabled its first phase of its Azure data center in Taiwan last year, allowing early adotping customers to access its cloud and AI services, four years after it announced a mega data center investment in 2020. The Taiwan Azure “data center region” would comprise three to four data centers, Microsoft said. “After we enabled the first of our one-plus-one data center projects last year, we
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