Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it expects to receive permanent authorization to continue operating a chip manufacturing factory in Nanjing after being granted an extension to a waiver to supply US chip equipment to its factories in China.
The world’s biggest contract chipmaker said it has been authorized to continue operating in Nanjing, where TSMC is expanding its 28-nanometer chip capacity to satisfy demand.
Last year, the chipmaker received a one-year authorization to operate the Nanjing fab deploying 28-nanometer and 16-nanometer technologies.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, Bloomberg
The Chinese market contributed about 12 percent to the company’s total revenue in the second quarter.
“We are in the process of applying for a permanent authorization for our operations in China,” TSMC said in a statement. “We have been advised by the [US] Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security to apply for Validated End-User [VEU] authorization, which would serve as a permanent authorization.”
The authorization has existed since 2007, but TSMC has not needed it previously, the chipmaker said.
“We expect to receive a permanent authorization through the VEU process,” TSMC said.
It has a modest campus in a Shanghai suburb and operates a site in Nanjing that makes 16-nanometer chips, four generations behind leading-edge technology.
Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc have been effectively granted an indefinite waiver on broader restrictions banning the shipment of advanced US chipmaking gear to China, South Korea’s presidential office said earlier this week.
Sweeping US regulations announced in October last year struck at the heart of Beijing’s tech ambitions, but also cast uncertainty over foreign chipmakers in China, including TSMC and its South Korean peers.
All three firms secured one-year waivers at the time, which allowed them to import vital equipment, but have since grappled with uncertainty over whether the exemptions would be extended.
US President Joe Biden’s administration late last month also removed a stringent curb on expansion in China by semiconductor companies that receive federal funds to build plants in the US.
TSMC and Samsung are expected to secure US subsidies for new facilities in the country.
Separately, TSMC is planning to produce 6-nanometer chips at its second plant in Japan, which is under construction, the Nikkei reported yesterday.
The chips would be manufactured in a new facility that TSMC is planning at its Kumamoto site in southwestern Japan, it said.
Total investment is estimated at ￥2 trillion (US$13.4 billion), with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry considering providing up to ￥900 billion, the report said.
They would be the most advanced semiconductor products to be made in the country.
The Japanese government is putting together aid for the semiconductor sector as part of an economic stimulus package that would be finalized as soon as the end of this month.
The support would include subsidies for the second TSMC plant.
The ministry has asked for ￥3.35 trillion for this fiscal year’s supplementary budget.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
Suspected Chinese spies posing as Taiwanese tourists have been arrested for allegedly taking photographs of Philippine Coast Guard ships, local media reported. The suspected spies stayed at a resort in Palawan, where from a secluded location they used their phones to record coast guard ships entering and leaving a base, Philippine TV network GMA said on Wednesday. Palawan is near the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) and other disputed areas of the South China Sea, where tensions have been on the rise between China and the Philippines. The suspects allegedly also used drones without permission and installed cameras on coconut trees in the
RSS