TSMC Plans Advanced Production of 4nm Chip at US Plant on Apple Demand
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company will supply advanced 4-nanometer chips when its new $12 billion (about Rs. 97,500 crore) plant in Arizona opens in 2024, prompted by US customers including Apple is doing so, reported Bloomberg News on Thursday. The company is expected to announce the new plan when US President Joe Biden and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo visit Phoenix at an event next Tuesday, according to the report, citing people familiar with the matter.
TSMC previously said it would make 20,000 wafers a month at the Arizona facility, but production may increase from those original plans, the report said. Apple will use about a third of the product as production continues, it added.
The report said that in addition to Apple, TSMC customers including AMD and Nvidia have also asked TSMC to make complex chips at the Arizona plant.
TSMC’s customers have asked the company to release its latest technology simultaneously in the United States and Taiwan, the report said.
TSMC declined to comment, while Apple, AMD and Nvidia did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Last week, TSMC founder Morris Chang said the company was planning to produce chips with advanced 3-nanometer technology in Arizona, but added that plans had not been finalized.
Chang told reporters in Taipei that the 3-nanometer plant will be located in the same area as Arizona and 5-nanometers. “Three-nanometer, TSMC currently has a plan, but it’s not completely finalized,” said Chang, who has retired from TSMC but remains influential in the company and the broader chip industry.
Last month, TSMC reported an 80 percent year-on-year increase in profits for the July-September 2022 period, the strongest growth in two years. However, TSMC has also reduced capital spending by at least 10 percent this year. TSMC, Asia’s most valuable listed company, said it was serious about planning investments for 2023, but still expected a “year of growth”.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
