Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to invest NT$90 billion (US$2.9 billion) to expand its advanced chip packaging capacity in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) to cope with customer demand, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said yesterday.
The Hsinchu Science Park Bureau has approved its application to lease land at the Tongluo Science Park, a branch campus of the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), for the plant’s construction, the chipmaker said in a statement.
TSMC did not elaborate on the project, including the time frame for its operation, saying only that the investment would create 1,500 job opportunities.
Photo: Reuters
The new investment comes as the chipmaker is having difficulty supplying advanced packaging capacity, especially 3D packaging technology and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) technology, thanks to robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips.
With its leading-edge process technologies, TSMC makes the AI GPU H100 for Nvidia Corp and MI300 GPU for Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
“We cannot fulfill 100 percent of customers’ needs,” TSMC chief executive officer C.C.Wei (魏哲家) told investors on Thursday last week. “We are increasing capacity as quickly as possible.”
The chipmaker plans to double its CoWoS capacity, Wei added, expecting the supply crunch to ease up at the end of next year.
TSMC has said it plans to allocate a small fraction of its capital expenditure budget of US$32 billion to US$36 billion this year to packaging.
A big chunk of the budget would go into the development of leading-edge technologies, including 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer processes, it said.
In addition to pure wafer foundry operations, TSMC operates five advanced chip packaging plants in Taiwan: at Hsinchu Science Park, Taoyuan’s Longtan District (龍潭), Miaoli County’s Jhunan Township (竹南), Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) in Taichung and the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) in Tainan.
Separately, TSMC said it is taking routine precautionary measures at all its fabs across the nation as Typhoon Doksuri approached Taiwan.
These include “24-hour on-duty personnel and emergency response teams, including water, electricity, mechanical and disaster recovery experts,” the chipmaker said in an e-mailed response to inquiries.
Other measures include inspections of drainage systems and waterproof gates; carrying out pump inventory testing; and minimizing use of temporary installations exposed to strong winds, TSMC said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RSS