Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is to invest a total of NT$1.5 trillion (US$45.2 billion) to expand its advanced 2-nanometer chip capacity in Kaohsiung, bolstering its commitment to augment investment and technology development at home.
The world’s biggest contract chipmaker unveiled the massive domestic investment after boosting its investment in the US by US$100 billion at the beginning of last month, fanning fears that Taiwan risks losing its competitive edge as TSMC plans to produce more advanced chips, including 2-nanometers, and set up a research and development center in the US for the first time.
TSMC yesterday held a capacity expansion ceremony at the construction site of its 2-nanometer fab, dubbed Fab 22, in Kaohsiung. The fab is to house five chip manufacturing facilities, with the first one set to enter volume production in the second half of this year, the company said in a statement.
Photo: CNA
“Today’s 2-nanometer capacity expansion ceremony holds significant importance for global semiconductor technology development, marking the successful progress of TSMC’s world-leading 2-nanometer process.
It showcases TSMC’s commitment to meeting strong market demand, continuously expanding capacity to support customers,” TSMC co-chief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛) said at the ceremony.
“In Kaohsiung, we will have Phase 3, Phase 4 and Phase 5 wafer fabrication plants. All of them will germinate here,” Chyn said.
The chipmaker said it is currently installing equipment at the first phase of Fab 22 and has completed structural engineering works at Phase 2.
Government officials, including Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) and Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) attended the ceremony.
With NT$1.5 trillion in investment, Fab 22 would create more than 7,000 direct high-tech positions and 20,000 construction jobs, it said.
Aside from its revenue, TSMC generates about NT$3 trillion in production value a year and 500,000 jobs through its supply chain partners and related services, it said.
TSMC has also been holding intensive discussions with the authorities to acquire more land to build new chipmaking facilities, Chyn said.
The company said its 2-nanometer process technology is expected to be widely applied in customers’ next-generation leading technology products, including supercomputers, mobile devices and cloud-based data centers.
TSMC estimated that 2-nanometer technology would create end products with a market value of US$2 trillion within five years of volume production.
TSMC also has a 2-nanometer chip fab in Hsinchu, which is progressing as planned.
TSMC said almost all technology innovators in the world are closely collaborating with it to adopt 2-nanometer technology, given its 10 to 15 percent speed improvement and 25 to 30 percent lower power consumption compared with 3-nanometer technology.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS