Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) aims to build a second chipmaking plant in Arizona, after it committed to building a US$12 billion complex in the state, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the plans.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker would announce its intention to establish another facility north of Phoenix, adjacent to the factory under construction, the newspaper reported.
The new investment should be similar to the first project’s, it added.
Photo: Lam Yik Fei, Bloomberg
Representatives for the company did not respond to requests for comment.
The administration of US President Joe Biden is trying to attract investments in US chipmaking, part of efforts to counter China’s ambitions and secure components vital to US national security. That effort accelerated after widespread shortages that began in late 2020 and last year drove home how chips were central to the production of everything from vehicles to smartphones.
Washington, which is dangling incentives of about US$50 billion for local projects, has hailed TSMC’s Arizona expansion as a triumph in endeavors to bring advanced chipmaking to the US.
The Taiwanese company has said that it costs much more to produce semiconductors in the US, although higher expenses are manageable with state support.
TSMC, whose production sites are mostly in Taiwan, has started to diversify over the past few years to help meet demand in major countries seeking to bolster domestic semiconductor production. It joins rivals, including Samsung Electronics Co, which is establishing a US$17 billion fab in Texas.
TSMC is building a US$7 billion facility in Japan and is also in early talks with the German government about potentially establishing a plant in the country.
On Tuesday, TSMC’s board of directors approved a budget of US$5.71 billion, with the vast majority to be spent on production involving specialty and advanced manufacturing processes.
TSMC said advanced manufacturing processes would receive about 70 to 80 percent of the funding, while 10 to 20 percent would be spent on specialty processes, with the remaining about 10 percent earmarked for advanced packaging and testing, as well as photomasking development.
TSMC last month said it would cut its capital expenditure for this year to about US$36 billion from the lower end of a range from US$40 billion to US$44 billion in the previous capital spending plan, citing short-term market uncertainty.
The global semiconductor industry is undergoing inventory adjustments at a time when major central banks have raised key interest rates to fight fast-growing inflation, which has hurt demand.
Additional reporting by CNA
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce a pause in rate cuts on Wednesday, as policymakers look to continue tackling inflation under close and vocal scrutiny from US President Donald Trump. The Fed cut its key lending rate by a full percentage point in the final four months of last year and indicated it would move more cautiously going forward amid an uptick in inflation away from its long-term target of 2 percent. “I think they will do nothing, and I think they should do nothing,” Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis former president Jim Bullard said. “I think the
The TAIEX ended the Year of the Dragon yesterday up about 30 percent, led by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). The benchmark index closed up 225.40 points, or 0.97 percent, at 23,525.41 on the last trading session of the Year of the Dragon before the Lunar New Year holiday ushers in the Year of the Snake. During the Year of the Dragon, the TAIEX rose 5,429.34 points, the highest ever, while the 30 percent increase in the year was the second-highest behind only a 30.84 percent gain in the Year of the Rat from Jan. 25, 2020, to Feb.
Cryptocurrencies gave a lukewarm reception to US President Donald Trump’s first policy moves on digital assets, notching small gains after he commissioned a report on regulation and a crypto reserve. Bitcoin has been broadly steady since Trump took office on Monday and was trading at about US$105,000 yesterday as some of the euphoria around a hoped-for revolution in cryptocurrency regulation ebbed. Smaller cryptocurrency ether has likewise had a fairly steady week, although was up 5 percent in the Asia day to US$3,420. Bitcoin had been one of the most spectacular “Trump trades” in financial markets, gaining 50 percent to break above US$100,000 and
RSS