Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to build a 12-inch wafer fab in Dresden, Germany, to make automotive chips in partnership with major customers, the world’s largest chipmaker said yesterday.
The joint venture, European Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (ESMC) GmbH, is to be 70 percent owned by TSMC, while customers Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG and NXP Semiconductors NV would each hold 10 percent, the Hsinchu-based company said in a statement.
Total investment is expected to exceed 10 billion euros (US$10.94 billion), consisting of equity injection, borrowing, and support from the EU and German government, TSMC said.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
The creation of ESMC marks a significant step toward construction of a 12-inch fab to support demand from the fast-growing automotive and industrial sectors, the statement said.
The final investment decision would depend on the confirmation of the level of public funding for the project, it added.
The project is being planned under the framework of the European Chips Act.
“This investment in Dresden demonstrates TSMC’s commitment to serving our customers’ strategic capacity and technology needs, and we are excited at this opportunity to deepen our long-standing partnership with Bosch, Infineon, and NXP,” TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said in the statement.
“Europe is a highly promising place for semiconductor innovation, particularly in the automotive and industrial fields, and we look forward to bringing those innovations to life on our advanced silicon technology with the talent in Europe,” he added.
The planned fab is expected to have a monthly production capacity of 40,000 12-inch wafers deploying TSMC’s 28-nanometer and 22-nanometer process technologies.
It is expected to create about 2,000 direct high-tech professional jobs, the chipmaker said.
ESMC aims to begin construction of the fab in the second half of next year, with production expected to commence at the end of 2027, it said.
TSMC in January forecast that in about five years or more, about 20 percent of its 28-nanometer-and-below capacity would come from overseas fabs.
Aside from the planned fab in Dresden, the company is building chip plants in the US and Japan.
TSMC yesterday said that a new factory it is building in Kaohsiung will be used to bring its advanced 2-nanometer chips into mass production by 2025.
The Kaohsiung plant had initially been slated to produce TSMC's 28nm chips, but Wei in April said it would instead be used for one of the company's more advanced process technologies.
A TSMC spokesperson yesterday confirmed that the Kaohsiung plant has been selected as a production base for the 2nm technology, starting in 2025.
The company yesterday said its board of directors had approved an equity investment of up to 3.5 billion euros in ESMC, as well as a capital injection of US$4.5 billion to fund the construction of its Arizona fabs.
The board also approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$3 per share for the second quarter of this year.
It also approved a proposed capital appropriation of US$6.06 billion.
Additional reporting by CNA
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