TSMC reaffirms ‘commitment to Taiwan’ despite US chip push, Nikkei Asia, Dec. 29, 2022.
CHENG TING-FANG, Nikkei Asia chief tech correspondent
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. on Thursday sought to allay concerns that its massive investment in chip production in the U.S. could weaken Taiwan's own strategically important semiconductor industry at a time of heightened tensions with China.
TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said the world's largest contract chipmaker has invested a total of 1.86 trillion New Taiwan dollars ($60.4 billion) for 3-nanometer and 5-nm chip production -- among the most advanced in the world -- at its factory in the Tainan Science Park in southwestern Taiwan.
That amount, which is about 50% more than the $40 billion it plans to invest in the U.S., "shows TSMC's commitment to Taiwan," Liu said at a ceremony at the park marking the expansion and start of mass production of 3-nm chips.
The majority of TSMC's production remains in Taiwan but the company has started to build chip plants in the U.S. and Japan as countries and clients from around the world push to onshore chip production. The company is also considering building its first European chip plant in Germany.
The investment in Tainan has created some 10,000 high-tech jobs and 23,500 construction positions, Liu said, adding that semiconductors will only become more important in the tech supply chain over the next 10 years.
The chairman also confirmed for the first time that TSMC will build six phases, or stages of expansion, its 2-nm chip plants in the central Taiwanese city of Taichung and the northern city of Hsinchu.
Nanometer refers to the distance between transistors on a chip. The smaller the nanometer size, the more advanced and more powerful the chips are. The mobile processors for Apple's iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max are made with TSMC's 4-nm process technology.
TSMC's U.S. plant will eventually make chips using 3-nm technology, but for now the chipmaker's 2-nm tech remains entirely in Taiwan.
Taiwan's vice premier, Shen Jong-chin, who also spoke at the event, said TSMC's move has shown the world that rumors the chipmaker is trying to shift capacity away from Taiwan are "completely baseless."
Taiwan is one of Asia's most important tech hubs, with the world's second-largest semiconductor industry by revenue after the U.S. But the self ruled democratic island has faced significant aggression from Beijing, which views Taiwan as a part of its territory and has not ruled out seizing it by force. Concerns over geopolitical conflicts have added to pressure on TSMC to diversify some manufacturing to other locations.