Image of the logo of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) at its headquarters in Hsinchu, Taiwan, January 19, 2021. REUTERS / Ann Wang
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s semiconductor maker (2330.TW) said on Monday it was too early to say whether it would build factories in Germany and that talks were still in their infancy, as the European Union aspired. Limit imports of chips in case of supply bottlenecks.
The European Commission has held talks with global chip giants such as Intel (INTC.O) and TSMC to boost semiconductor production and protect itself from shocks in the global supply chain. Continue reading
Taiwan and TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip maker, have become key roles in efforts to tackle chip shortages caused by the pandemic, forcing automakers to cut production and hurting manufacturers of smartphones, laptops and even hardware.
“We are currently seriously examining Germany, but it is still at a very early stage,” TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said at the annual shareholder meeting when asked about building chip plants in the EU member state.
“We continue to communicate with our main customers in Germany to see if this is the most important and most effective for our customers,” he said. “It’s too early to say that.”
TSMC announced plans to build new plants in the United States and Japan in July amid concerns about the concentration of chip-making capacity in Taiwan, which makes most of the world’s most advanced chips and is geographically close to its political rival China. Continue reading
At TSMC’s $12 billion facility in Arizona, Liu said the expansion will support customer demand, particularly in the areas of infrastructure and national security.
“Customers are the backbone of our global expansion. We will continue to operate with great caution,” Liu said, adding that the company’s customers would help share the cost of overseas operations.
This year, TSMC announced that it will invest $100 billion over the next three years to increase capacity and take advantage of so-called “multi-year growth opportunities” as the COVID-19 pandemic and new technologies drive global demand for high-tech boost chips.
Prepared by Yimo Lee. Adaptation by Jerry Doyle
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