Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) board of directors yesterday approved capital appropriations of US$29.62 billion to install and upgrade the firm’s chip manufacturing process technologies, as well as its advanced and mature packaging technology capacity.
The capital expenditure budget would also be for fab construction and installation of manufacturing facilities, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker said in a statement.
TSMC did not comment on reports that it was in talks with flat-panel display maker Innolux Corp (群創) to acquire an idle plant as it prepares to convert manufacturing equipment into a new chip packaging production line that is to use fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) technology.
Photo: AFP
Innolux said that about 60 percent of the idle plant’s manufacturing equipment could be reused for the FOPLP technology and its employees have a lot of experience and know-how about glass panel substrates, which are used in panel-level packaging to achieve heterogeneous integration of chips.
TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) last month told investors that the company was “looking at this kind of a panel-level fan-out technology,” as he believed the technology would be mature in about three years.
The chipmaker last month said it planned to spend US$28 billion to US$32 billion this year on new facilities and equipment, with a significant portion earmarked for advanced process technologies such as 2-nanometer technology.
About 10 percent of the capital budget would be for advanced packaging, testing and mask making, it said.
The board in the statement approved a cash dividend of NT$4 per share for the second quarter, as net profit was NT$247.85 billion (US$7.63 billion), or earnings per share of NT$9.56.
The board also gave the go-ahead for a new capital injection of up to US$7.5 billion to TSMC Arizona, a wholly owned subsidiary of TSMC, and the issuance of 2.353 million new “restricted shares” to attract and retain executives and talent, it said.
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