The Ministry of the Interior yesterday approved a development project to expand the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), paving the way for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to build an advanced 1.4-nanometer fab next year.
The project is crucial for the nation’s semiconductor industry in terms of next-generation technology and capacity, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said in a statement.
The bureau expects to hand over the land to interested semiconductor companies by the end of June next year, when the Taichung City Government completes land appropriation.
Photo courtesy of the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau via CNA
Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) earlier this month told reporters that TSMC had agreed to build an advanced fab, likely using 1.4-nanometer technology, in the expanded Central Taiwan Science Park after the chipmaker suffered a setback in October in building an advanced fab in the Longtan (龍潭) section of Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) due to strong opposition by local residents.
The bureau said that a majority, or about 76 percent, of the 89.75 hectares to be appropriated is owned by a golf course operator, adding that the central and local governments would work together to solve issues concerning the golf course employees and compensation to members.
Government agencies, including the Ministry of National Defense, own about 13 percent of the land, the bureau said.
If the new project moves forward smoothly, it would generate NT$485.7 billion (US$15.6 billion) in annual production value and create 4,500 jobs upon completion, the bureau said.
Several companies from the semiconductor supply chain have expressed an interest in building operations there, it said.
Separately, MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it would work closely with TSMC to produce its new flagship smartphone chips using 3-nanometer technology next year.
“Leading-edge technologies are very complicated and it is difficult for the company to switch [foundry] partners,” MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told reporters when asked if the smartphone chip designer is considering a second source, such as Intel Corp or Samsung Electronics Co.
MediaTek has been working with Intel to produce chips using the latter’s 16-nanometer technology, Tsai said.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
RSS