Electronics

September 13th, since this year, the shortage of chips has been plagued the world. As the world's largest foundry chip manufacturer, TSMC was recently revealed that it is seeking to build an advanced process chip factory in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, in order to solve the global chip shortage crisis.

According to sources, this new plant will mass-produce 7-nanometer and 6-nanometer technology chips. Currently, they produce advanced mobile processors (CPU) and graphics processing units (GPU) for Nvidia, AMD and MediaTek. At the same time, TSMC also manufactures mobile processors for Apple's iPhone 12 and the upcoming iPhone 13.

It is reported that construction of the new factory will begin next year at the earliest, but the actual production time will be after 2023, and it is expected that the factory will meet the growing demand for chips from companies such as Intel and Tesla.

According to relevant sources, the important reason why Kaohsiung, Taiwan was considered for this site selection is that the region can provide TSMC with sufficient water resources. Kaohsiung's local water supply can reach 1.6 million tons a day, and the demand is about 1.5 million tons, which means that its water supply is sufficient to support the normal production of the new factory. In addition, this is also greatly related to the water shortage in the spring of today, when TSMC’s Nanke plant in central Taiwan was in desperate water use.

Currently, TSMC’s most important 7nm production center is located in the central region of Taiwan, China. They also pointed out that chip makers continue to add new equipment to the plant, but its plant land is tight, so the company plans to expand outwards to add additional capacity.

According to the media, this move will be part of TSMC’s largest expansion plan in history, including its production expansion goal. By 2023, the company will spend $100 billion to expand chip production capacity. In addition, the company is negotiating with the Japanese government to build the first chip foundry in the country.

Arisa Liu, a semiconductor analyst at the Taiwan Economic Research Institute, said that Taiwan does not want TSMC to build factories elsewhere. Because TSMC’s investment this year has accounted for 20% of the total private investment in the region, which has had an important impact on the region, both in terms of people’s livelihood and the economy.