Rumours are going strong on the internet about the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s plans of building facilities in the United States. The latest news comes from Nikkei Asia, who heard some interesting news from an anonymous leaker.
According to sources, the Taiwanese fab will expand its U.S. footprint to include chip packaging facilities. We heard some decent news in days because it is a crucial process before the silicon makes its way inside gadgets such as notebooks and smartphones.
As of now, officially, TSMC has plans for its chip manufacturing plant in the U.S. which states the construction plan set to conclude in 2024. And also producing 100,000 wafers each month and require a $12 billion investment.
However, rumours are quickly surfacing online that the chipmaker might build as many as six plants in Arizona, requiring a capital expenditure of $35 billion. It is also being suggested that the new ‘Mega Fab’ would have an output of 100,000 wafers.
But the exact location as to where the company will build its packaging plant. However, if the rumours are indeed true, we expect that the company will keep its production inside its Arizona campus.
But in fact, we have acquired a large piece of land in Arizona to provide flexibility. So further expansion is possible, but we will ramp up to Phase 1 first, then based on the operation efficiency and cost economics and also the customers’ demand, to decide what the next steps we are going to do.
However, one fact remains that if American companies were to lose access to TSMC’s chipmaking technologies, then they could witness a combined loss of $500 billion. But still, many huge names in the industry are still reliant on TSMC.
According to sources, Apple is TSMC’s largest customer, and the chipmaker gets most of its revenues from dealing with the Cupertino giant. TSMC also confirmed during its technology conference that 63% of its total revenues originate from North America.
