The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) announced an ambitious new NT$700 billion (US$20 billion) expansion plan yesterday, which includes six new chipmaking facilities in Taiwan.
"As long as corporate enterprise and the government continue to work together, Taiwan will maintain its competitive edge," TSMC Chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) said yesterday while welcoming President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park.
Chen called the investment plans proof of the nation's competitiveness and urged other firms to follow TSMC's example by maintaining the core of their manufacturing, design and R&D operations in Taiwan while expanding worldwide.
The nation's unemployment rate hit 5.26 percent last month, the highest since the government started keeping track 23 years ago.
"TSMC is determined to construct fabs in China and other major markets around the world," Chang said. "Taiwan, where TSMC was founded, will remain a vital base for TSMC's future investments."
The company has said in the past it would set up a sales office in Shanghai in the near term and build a chip plant there within the next two years.
The NT$700 billion TSMC plans to spend will go toward the construction of six new semiconductor wafer fabrication plants, or fabs, in Tainan and Hsinchu.
They will all be state-of-the-art 12-inch wafer manufacturing facilities. The company has invested a total of NT$260 billion over the past four years.
Chang yesterday also confirmed the resumption of work on the company's Fab 14 located in the Tainan science park.
Six months ago, TSMC halted the project due to fears that vibrations from a planned high-speed railway running through the park might impact the plant's sensitive microchip manufacturing equipment.
Earlier this year, a number of chip companies, including Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), pulled out of agreements to build chip plants in Tainan due to the same fears.
Japanese trains purchased at the last minute over trains made by the German firm Siemens are expected to produce radically higher levels of vibration than the companies had anticipated, pundits charged at the time.
TSMC Vice Chairman Tseng Fan-cheng (
In May, TSMC assembled a team of experts that found that common engineering methods could be used to eliminate vibrations that may be caused by the planned railway.
TSMC plans to build at least six 12-inch wafer fabs in the Tainan science park, making the park a key element in the firm's future plans.
Taking that technology to China would be a violation of US law, as chipmaking equipment for 12-inch wafer plants is not allowed to be sold to companies planning on taking it to China due to defense concerns.
"Historically, TSMC has focused its investments in the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park," Chang said. "Going forward, the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park will be TSMC's most important site for future semiconductor fab construction in Taiwan."
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS