Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in advanced talks with suppliers about setting up its first European plant in Dresden, Germany, the Financial Times reported yesterday.
TSMC is sending a team of senior executives to Germany early next month to discuss the level of government support and the capacity of the local supply chain to meet the prospective plant’s needs, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
TSMC said in a statement responding to the report: “We do not rule out any possibility but there is no concrete plan at this time.”
Photo: Bloomberg
It did not elaborate.
The Financial Times did not specify whether any government support would be federal, regional or local.
The east German state of Saxony, of which Dresden is the capital, said it is always in talks with leading companies in the microelectronics industry, but the companies themselves make decisions about new locations.
“In that sense, Saxony supports these companies with the aim of further strengthening Silicon Saxony as a high-tech location,” the state government said.
Taiwan and the EU held high-level trade talks in June. Less than a week after that meeting, TSMC said it had no concrete plans for factories in Europe.
However, TSMC last year flagged that it was in the early stages of reviewing a potential expansion in Germany.
The chipmaker’s talks with several materials and equipment suppliers are focused on whether they can also make the investments required to support the plant, the Financial Times said, adding that if the firm presses ahead with a Dresden plant, it would focus on 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer chip technologies.
Under the European Chips Act, the European Commission earmarked 15 billion euros (US$15.9 billion) for public and private semiconductor projects by 2030 and to double the EU’s share of the highly competitive chip market.
TSMC is also building plants in the US and Japan.
The secretary-general of a Japanese ruling party lawmakers’ group on chip strategy yesterday said he believed TSMC is considering a second chip plant in the country.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker and Asia’s most valuable listed company said it also does not rule out any possibility for Japan, but that there were no concrete plans.
Earlier this month, TSMC said it would more than triple its planned investment at its new Arizona plant to US$40 billion, which would be among the largest foreign investments in US history.
The company expects its Phoenix factories to create 13,000 high-tech jobs, including 4,500 under TSMC and the rest at suppliers.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
RSS