Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that the majority of its most advanced chips would continue to be manufactured in Taiwan and that it is boosting advanced chip packaging capacity to catch up with fast-growing demand driven by generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications like ChatGPT.
Deeply rooted in Taiwan, TSMC is expanding production capacity for its most advanced 3-nanometer (nm) chips at its Tainan fab and is building new plants to produce new 2-nanometer chips in Hsinchu and Taichung in 2025.
The chipmaker also plans to produce next-generation, cutting-edge 1.4-nanometer chips, which are currently under development, at home, it said.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
“A majority of [these advanced chips] will be made in Taiwan,” TSMC chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said in response to a shareholder’s question about capacity expansion plans during the company’s annual general meeting in Hsinchu.
"I think Taiwan’s semiconductor industry plays a stabilising role amid global geopolitical tensions. Whether it’s China or the United States... they all hope that TSMC is around," said TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音).
"I hope Taiwan’s semiconductor industry can do well to have a stabilising effect on global geopolitical conflict."
Although TSMC has been expanding its global footprint in the past few years to meet customers’ requirements, it expects that only a small portion, or about 20 percent, of its 28-nanometer chips and some advanced chips would be made at fabs outside Taiwan in the next five years or even longer.
Aside from its advanced fabs in the US, TSMC deploys more mature process technologies to produce chips mostly for vehicles and other gadgets at its fabs in China and Japan.
The company is also evaluating plans to build two new fabs — in Japan and in Europe, likely in Germany — to produce less advanced chips.
TSMC is engaging with customers and partners to evaluate the feasibility of building a specialty fab focused on automotive technology in Germany, it said.
Like its Japanese fab, the company is considering allowing some automotive customers to hold minor stakes in the planned fab, Liu told a media briefing after the shareholders’ meeting.
At home, TSMC is trying hard to boost advanced packaging capacity through unconventional approaches to cope with demand after ChatGPT and other generative AI applications became popular at the start of the year.
“Because of ChatGPT, TSMC has received large orders for advanced packaging. Demand has greatly exceeded our capacity,” Liu said.
Nvidia Corp, a major supplier of AI graphics processing units, is one of the major clients of TSMC’s chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology.
To satisfy customers’ demand, TSMC allocated some capacity for the advanced packaging technology at its fab in Taoyuan’s Longtan District (龍潭), Liu said, adding that it outsources some of the CoWoS production to chip packagers.
For the full year, CoWoS capacity would be double the size of last year, as the company continues its pace of expansion, he said.
Revenue contribution from chips used in generative AI applications is still tiny, but this new business is helping the company’s advanced chip packaging reach economies of scale, Liu said.
TSMC also called on the government to step up efforts to encourage green energy production.
Because of the scarcity of energy from renewable sources in Taiwan, the company would not be able to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, Liu said.
Additional Reporting By AFP
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 12:37pm today, with clear shaking felt across much of northern Taiwan. There were no immediate reports of damage. The epicenter of the quake was 16.9km east-southeast of Yilan County Hall offshore at a depth of 66.8km, Central Weather Administration (CWA) data showed. The maximum intensity registered at a 4 in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳) on Taiwan’s seven-tier scale. Other parts of Yilan, as well as certain areas of Hualien County, Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu County, Taichung and Miaoli County, recorded intensities of 3. Residents of Yilan County and Taipei received
Taiwan has secured another breakthrough in fruit exports, with jujubes, dragon fruit and lychees approved for shipment to the EU, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency on Thursday received formal notification of the approval from the EU, the ministry said, adding that the decision was expected to expand Taiwanese fruit producers’ access to high-end European markets. Taiwan exported 126 tonnes of lychees last year, valued at US$1.48 million, with Japan accounting for 102 tonnes. Other export destinations included New Zealand, Hong Kong, the US and Australia, ministry data showed. Jujube exports totaled 103 tonnes, valued at
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
BIG SPENDERS: Foreign investors bought the most Taiwan equities since 2005, signaling confidence that an AI boom would continue to benefit chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market capitalization swelled to US$2 trillion for the first time following a 4.25 percent rally in its American depositary receipts (ADR) overnight, putting the world’s biggest contract chipmaker sixth on the list of the world’s biggest companies by market capitalization, just behind Amazon.com Inc. The site CompaniesMarketcap.com ranked TSMC ahead of Saudi Aramco and Meta Platforms Inc. The Taiwanese company’s ADRs on Tuesday surged to US$385.75 on the New York Stock Exchange, as strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications led to chip supply constraints and boost revenue growth to record-breaking levels. Each TSMC ADR represents
RSS