A meeting last week between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) is believed by some analysts to indicate that the chipmaker is planning to build a 2-nanometer fabrication plant in the city.
Accompanied by three TSMC vice presidents — Wang Ying-lang (王英郎) of fab operations, Arthur Chuang (莊子壽) of the facility division and Jonathan Lee (李俊賢) of corporate planning — Wei met with Lu and a team of top city officials on Friday, the city government said in a statement on Saturday.
Lu expressed that hope that TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, could build plants in Taichung and help boost the city’s economic development, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Taichung City Government
ENVIRONMENT
The statement quoted Wei as saying that Taichung’s climate and location are excellent, while its numerous schools, malls and hospitals attract talent to settle and work there, making the city a good place for the company to expand its manufacturing capacity.
Lu praised the city’s “favorable investment environment,” telling TSMC officials that since she took office three years ago, a number of companies have invested in the city, such as the second-phase expansion of the Mitsui Outlet Park at the Port of Taichung and the construction of the Lalaport shopping center operated by the Mitsui brand, as well as several offshore wind power projects, the statement said.
The central government’s “Invest in Taiwan” initiative has attracted 231 companies to Taichung, creating more than 21,000 local jobs, Lu added.
On Saturday, TSMC told the Central News Agency that the company has a wafer plant in Taichung and Wei paid a courtesy visit to the city government.
However, analysts have said that there was no precedent for the CEO to visit the local government where its production facility is located.
SPECULATION
Considering the management team members who attended the meeting, analysts have speculated that the visit had something to do with the company’s plan to expand production capacity at its 2-nanometer fab in Taichung.
After it scaled up production of its 5-nanometer chips last year, TSMC said that it would begin mass producing 3-nanometer chips in the second half of next and 2-nanometer chips in 2025.
A company source familiar with the matter said that TSMC plans to develop a plot of land in Hsinchu’s Baoshan Township (寶山), which would include a 2-nanometer fab.
However, the plot is not big enough to allow the company to expand its production facilities, so TSMC management might be seeking a new lot on which to build another factory in Taichung, the source said.
TRADE WAR: Tariffs should also apply to any goods that pass through the new Beijing-funded port in Chancay, Peru, an adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump said A veteran adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump is proposing that the 60 percent tariffs that Trump vowed to impose on Chinese goods also apply to goods from any country that pass through a new port that Beijing has built in Peru. The duties should apply to goods from China or countries in South America that pass through the new deep-water port Chancay, a town 60km north of Lima, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, an adviser to the Trump transition team who served as senior director for the western hemisphere on the White House National Security Council in his first administration. “Any product going
TECH SECURITY: The deal assures that ‘some of the most sought-after technology on the planet’ returns to the US, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said The administration of US President Joe Biden finalized its CHIPS Act incentive awards for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), marking a major milestone for a program meant to bring semiconductor production back to US soil. TSMC would get US$6.6 billion in grants as part of the contract, the US Department of Commerce said in a statement yesterday. Though the amount was disclosed earlier this year as part of a preliminary agreement, the deal is now legally binding — making it the first major CHIPS Act award to reach this stage. The chipmaker, which is also taking up to US$5 billion
High above the sparkling surface of the Athens coastline, the cranes for building the 50-floor luxury tower centerpiece of Greece’s future “smart city” look out over the Saronic Gulf. At their feet, construction machinery stirs up dust. Its backers say the 8 billion euro (US$8.43 billion) project financed by private funds is a symbol of Greece’s renaissance after the years of financial stagnation that saw investors flee the country. However, critics see it more as a future “ghetto for the rich.” It is hard to imagine that 10km from the Acropolis, a new city “three times the size of Monaco”
STRUGGLING BUSINESS: South Korea’s biggest company and semiconductor manufacturer’s buyback fuels concerns that it could be missing out on the AI boom Samsung Electronics Co plans to buy back about 10 trillion won (US$7.2 billion) of its own stock over the next year, putting in motion one of the larger shareholder return programs in its history. South Korea’s biggest company would repurchase the stock in stages over the coming 12 months, it said in a regulatory filing on Friday. As a first step, it would buy back about 3 trillion won of paper starting today up until February next year, all of which it would cancel. The board would deliberate on how best to effect the remaining 7 trillion won of buybacks. The move
RSS