TSMC CFO Huang Ren-zhao said in an interview that, in response to strong customer demand and to fend off rapidly advancing competitors, the company has decided to increase its investment in Arizona, USA, by an additional US$100 billion (RM 408.577 billion), bringing the total investment to US$265 billion.
According to reports from Bloomberg and Reuters, last Thursday (July 16), TSMC held its second-quarter earnings conference during which Chairman and CEO C.C. Wei announced that the additional US$100 billion investment would be used to build four more wafer fabs, meaning that TSMC will have a total of ten wafer fabs and two packaging plants in Arizona.
Huang Ren-zhao said in an interview last Friday (17th) that such a large investment would become the largest overseas direct investment in U.S. history, but stressed that when the overall investment commitment would be completed depends on market conditions. TSMC currently has one wafer fab in production, with two more scheduled to come online before 2030, and now even more facilities will be added in the Arizona campus.
He said: "We are doing our best to expand capacity at any feasible location to support our customers' growth."
He said: "We are doing our best to expand capacity at any feasible location to support our customers' growth."
TSMC is also increasingly facing challenges from Intel and Elon Musk’s Terafab. In response, Huang Ren-zhao said TSMC "would also like to make it clear that we have no intention of handing over any business to others."
However, Huang Ren-zhao also raised the challenges TSMC faces in expanding its investment in the US. He said the company faces physical constraints such as the number of available construction workers in the market and the existing local infrastructure as it expands its footprint.
Huang Ren-zhao reiterated that although TSMC is actively expanding its factories in the US, the latest technology will still be expanded in Taiwan first, because developing next-generation chips requires close collaboration between the R&D team and the factories.
However, Huang Ren-zhao also raised the challenges TSMC faces in expanding its investment in the US. He said the company faces physical constraints such as the number of available construction workers in the market and the existing local infrastructure as it expands its footprint.
Huang Ren-zhao reiterated that although TSMC is actively expanding its factories in the US, the latest technology will still be expanded in Taiwan first, because developing next-generation chips requires close collaboration between the R&D team and the factories.
Huang Ren-zhao also insisted on the company’s previous statement that for now it will not use ASML’s most advanced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems. These devices are priced from 350 million euros (RM 1.636 billion) each, and the decision not to use them is partly due to cost considerations.