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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) introduced this week that it’s constructing the manufacturing unit shell for a potential second fab at its Arizona web site. The world’s high chipmaker has already dedicated to a $12 billion funding for its 5-nm fab in Arizona.
In an electronic mail to EE Occasions, the corporate stated it’s “now setting up” a constructing to probably function a second fab in Arizona that might assist obtain better price effectiveness on the new web site.
TSMC has led a wave of latest fab investments within the U.S. as a part of a nationwide effort to rebuild the home semiconductor business centered round the CHIPS Act. When the primary TSMC Arizona fab begins manufacturing in 2024, it is going to produce 5-nm chips—essentially the most superior within the U.S.
“This constructing allows us to stay versatile for future enlargement, however we now have not arrived on a remaining determination on a second fab,” TSMC spokesperson Nina Kao stated in a ready assertion. “In mild of the robust buyer demand we’re seeing in TSMC’s superior expertise, we are going to take into account including extra capability in Arizona with a second fab.”
A second Arizona fab is more likely to goal the 3-nm node, in line with one business analyst who leads semiconductor analysis at a world funding financial institution. The analyst requested that their identify and that of the financial institution be stored nameless due to Taiwan rules governing such banks.
“A second section is sensible to maneuver to three nm for supply round 2025-2026 as 2 nm is ramping in Taiwan, and TSMC would have a pretty big wave of HPC (excessive efficiency computing) and cellular (demand) nonetheless on the 3-nm node,” the analyst stated in a report supplied to EE Occasions.
TSMC’s U.S. buyer base accounts for about two-thirds of the chipmaker’s gross sales of chiplet architectures mixed with superior packaging processes, in line with the analyst.
An Arizona “mega-fab” much like the a number of fab clusters that TSMC runs in Taiwan would assist the corporate obtain financial system of scale and keep a roadmap to the 1-nm node, the analyst added. TSMC has stated it plans to maintain its most superior expertise in Taiwan because the island nation expects to maintain its lead in semiconductors and stay an indispensable hyperlink within the international provide chain.
The U.S. goals to draw extra funding from abroad leaders within the semiconductor business like TSMC and Samsung. As of this yr, the U.S. accounts for 12% of the world’s manufacturing, which at present primarily comes from Asia.
One analyst, nevertheless, was much less sanguine in regards to the TSMC announcement.
“It’s removed from a executed deal,” stated Mark Li, senior analysis analyst masking Asian semiconductors for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
TSMC’s gross sales are hovering even because the semiconductor enterprise sours. The corporate this month reported that its gross sales in October surged by 56% from October 2021, reaching a file NT$210 billion ($6.6 billion).
For the primary 10 months of 2022, TSMC’s gross sales have elevated by 44% year-over-year.
The highest chip foundry, which competes with Samsung and Intel to make chips for purchasers together with Apple, Qualcomm, and Nvidia, earlier this yr lower $4 billion from its 2022 price range for enlargement as international demand for semiconductors waned.
In October, TSMC stated it’s reducing its 2022 capability enlargement price range to $36 billion from the unique $40 billion introduced in July, because the outlook for demand from smartphone and different client electronics makers worsens. TSMC nonetheless expects to outpace progress of the semiconductor business subsequent yr.
