Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com March 13 news, as advanced semiconductors become strategic materials, TSMC, which has an absolute lead in the manufacturing process below 7nm, has become the most concerned target in the world. In the face of geopolitical risk pressure, TSMC has announced the establishment of factories in Japan and the United States, and TSMC is also evaluating the possibility of building factories in Europe.

Compared with the relatively smooth progress of production expansion in Japan, the recent progress of the new plant in the United States has been delayed and there has been a constant noise about the degree of profit impairment. The 5nm originally planned to be produced in the first phase of the project in 2024 has been further upgraded to 4nm, and the second phase of the project is planned and has begun construction. It is expected that the second phase of the project will enter the 3nm era in 2026, and the total investment of the second phase of the project will be as high as $40 billion (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 277.6 billion yuan), which is also the largest foreign direct investment project in the history of the United States.

Tuyuan UnsplashDigitimes quoted sources as saying that judging from the current progress of engineering and equipment installation, TSMC's new wafer plant in the United States is unlikely to start full production in 2024 and may be delayed to 2025.

According to a semiconductor equipment supply chain source, the overall construction and equipment installation of TSMC's new wafer plant in Arizona has been delayed, while foundry must also address severe labor shortages, soaring costs, and emerging education and adaptation problems involving foreign employees.

On the other hand, TSMC also began to adjust to take orders in the United States. Sources stressed that for the already sky-high 5/4/3nm chips, how to accurately calculate costs and profits in the process of negotiating prices with customers will be a major challenge for TSMC, especially when the cost of wafer production in the United States will inevitably increase.

As a matter of fact, TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou said earlier that he was not optimistic about setting up a factory in the United States, believing that the manufacturing cost was too high and that he lacked relevant talent, and that "it was expensive, wasteful and wasteful". And major analysts also believe that from a business point of view, TSMC's investment in the United States is totally unreasonable, and it is most likely that TSMC was forced to set up a factory in the United States because of political considerations.

Wei Zhe-Jia also said frankly that Japan is not a cheap place. TSMC decided to set up a factory in Japan because of the request of Apple, its biggest customer, and hoped that TSMC would do its utmost to help its largest supplier, Sony.

Related readings:

TSMC CEO: plans to produce 2nm chips in 2025 and is considering building a second factory in Japan.

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