TSMC to build two more chip plants in Chiayi, Taiwan

Taiwan's largest chipmaker is doubling down on the island's south. TSMC will add two more advanced chip packaging plants at the Chiayi Science Park, National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Cheng-wen said Sunday at a groundbreaking ceremony, pushing the site's total to four facilities.

The facility, located in the south of Taiwan, has become one of TSMC’s main centres for the packaging of the advanced chips. The first facility in the park has started manufacturing on a large scale, while the second facility is due to do likewise very soon.

Sunday’s groundbreaking ceremony was the beginning of the second stage of construction of the facility, which will result in the establishment of two additional plants.

According to Wu, when finished, the entire industrial complex is expected to produce more than NT$300 billion, or about $9.35 billion, annually.

Besides, he stated that all four facilities taken together were to provide more than 9,000 new jobs.

It comes amid a trend that’s seen TSMC increase the scale of its capabilities for advanced packaging in several locations, including through the use of its chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) process technology.

This technology has become essential in developing the high-performance chips required by companies that manufacture AI hardware, and the demand is not showing any signs of waning.

One such company ordering more than the available supply is Nvidia, one of the manufacturers of AI chips.