Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday held an opening ceremony for its first chip manufacturing fab in Kumamoto, Japan, which it hopes will improve chip supply resilience and help Japan usher in a semiconductor renaissance.
The Kumamoto fab is slated to enter volume production in the fourth quarter of this year.
The Japanese government said it would extend its financial support of the project to include the construction of a second factory, as TSMC’s investment is crucial to its efforts to revive its semiconductor industry.
Photo: Bloomberg
The Kumamoto fab is owned by a joint venture, Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc (JASM), which is majority-owned by TSMC. Other partners include Sony Corp and Denso Corp. Toyota Motor Corp joined the venture early this month.
The second fab would use cutting-edge 6-nanometer technology to produce advanced chips to meet growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, and those used in autonomous vehicles.
“The production of advanced logic semiconductors at JASM is a significant step in both our country’s semiconductor industry and user industries,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a prerecorded video during the opening ceremony.
Photo: CNA
The Japanese government has implemented unprecedented support for the development of a domestic manufacturing base for advanced semiconductors, Kishida said.
“As a government, based on the Domestic Investment Promotion Package formulated in December last year, we will continue to swiftly implement support measures such as budget, tax system and regulatory reform,” Kishida said.
The Japanese government has said that it plans to offer about ￥1.2 trillion (US$7.97 billion) in subsidies for the two Kumamoto fabs.
Photo: Lisa Wang, Taipei Times
The construction of the Kumamoto factory went surprisingly well, as it took only one-and-a-half years rather than the 10 years it usually takes for a ￥1 trillion project like this one, Kumamoto Prefecture Governor Ikuo Kabashima said during the ceremony.
During a speech, TSMC founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) said the event reminded him of his first trip to Japan 56 years ago, while he was serving as an integrated circuits executive at Texas Instruments Inc.
He was there in 1968 to talk with Sony cofounder Akio Morita about starting a joint venture, Chang said.
Morita told him he would be pleasantly surprised about the yield he would achieve in Japan, he said.
That prediction came true, and at its height, Texas Instruments operated three semiconductor factories in Japan, he said.
Fifty years after his conversation with Morita, he is again waiting to see if he “will be pleasantly surprised by the yield,” Chang said.
It would be harder this time, because TSMC has a good yield in Taiwan, but he still has high hopes for JASM, he said.
The new JASM fab would “improve the resilience of the chip supply for Japan and for the world,” Chang said. “It will also, I hope and I believe, start a renaissance of semiconductor manufacturing in Japan.”
Semiconductors will be “very much-needed in the future,” driven by demand for AI applications, he said.
AI chip demand would be enormous, requiring tens of thousands wafers and 10 fabs, he said.
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
EASING ANXIETY: The new guide includes a section encouraging people to discuss the threat of war with their children and teach them how to recognize disinformation The Ministry of National Defense’s All-Out Defense Mobilization Agency yesterday released its updated civil defense handbook, which defines the types of potential military aggression by an “enemy state” and self-protection tips in such scenarios. The agency has released three editions of the handbook since 2022, covering information from the preparation of go-bags to survival tips during natural disasters and war. Compared with the previous edition, released in 2023, the latest version has a clearer focus on wartime scenarios. It includes a section outlining six types of potential military threats Taiwan could face, including destruction of critical infrastructure and most undersea cables, resulting in
RSS