TSMC Launches Massive Expansion With 24 New Factories

[fansink]

Taiwan’s TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is also taking major steps to catch up with the higher demand for advanced chips. The company is building 24 new factories across the globe. The new factories will be in the United States, Europe, Japan, and China. The expansion will drastically increase TSMC’s global production capacity.

TSMC plans to establish nine such plants by 2025. Eight of them will be used for manufacturing chips and one for creating advanced packaging technology. Expansion at such a pace, however, is not without problems. One such big problem is hiring sufficient talented individuals to man the new facilities.

Hiring in nations like the United States is very costly. Wages there are very high and make the initial establishment of factories very costly. However, TSMC’s labor force has been expanding very fast. In 2019, the firm had about 51,000 employees. As of December 2024, the labor force had reached 83,825.

The growth is strong. TSMC added 1,300 more individuals in the first half of 2025. It hopes to have 90,000 by the conclusion of this year. It aims to have more than 100,000 employees around the world by 2026.

The main reason for this massive growth is the increasing demand for AI technologies. From cloud computing to intelligent devices, AI is creating a demand for improved and more powerful chips. TSMC would prefer to get ahead of the competition by investing big time now.

These investments carry risks. Global competition is rising. Supply chain management and getting sufficient skilled workers may be challenging. Nonetheless, TSMC’s positive track record of innovation and success indicates that it can manage these challenges successfully.

TSMC Launches Massive Expansion with 24 New Factories

TSMC announces plans to build 24 new factories worldwide, boosting chip production to meet growing global AI demand.

www.gizchina.com

 

[Daniel Nenni]

"Taiwan’s TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is also taking major steps to catch up with the higher demand for advanced chips. The company is building 24 new factories across the globe....TSMC plans to establish nine such plants by 2025. Eight of them will be used for manufacturing chips and one for creating advanced packaging technology."

This looks like AI generated nonsense. Cliff Hou outlined TSMC's manufacturing plans last week: https://www.tsmc.com/english/node/223

 

[fansink]

"Taiwan’s TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is also taking major steps to catch up with the higher demand for advanced chips. The company is building 24 new factories across the globe....TSMC plans to establish nine such plants by 2025. Eight of them will be used for manufacturing chips and one for creating advanced packaging technology."

This looks like AI generated nonsense. Cliff Hou outlined TSMC's manufacturing plans last week: https://www.tsmc.com/english/node/223

View attachment 3087

Heavens to Murgatroyd

 

[hist78]

"Taiwan’s TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is also taking major steps to catch up with the higher demand for advanced chips. The company is building 24 new factories across the globe....TSMC plans to establish nine such plants by 2025. Eight of them will be used for manufacturing chips and one for creating advanced packaging technology."

This looks like AI generated nonsense. Cliff Hou outlined TSMC's manufacturing plans last week: https://www.tsmc.com/english/node/223

View attachment 3087

I was wondering where the author got the information about '24' new fabs. Could it be that Fab24 at ESMC makes the author believe there are 24 new fabs under construction?

 

[Artificer60]

Let's see 24 fabs at $10B each is $240B. TSMC has deep pockets, but not that deep. This doesn't pass the sniff test.

 

[siliconbruh999]

Let's see 24 fabs at $10B each is $240B. TSMC has deep pockets, but not that deep. This doesn't pass the sniff test.

Leading edge fab was $20 billion if I remember so it would be $480 billion if only it had one more fab it would be $500 billion the magic number everyone is saying .

 

[fansink]

"Taiwan’s TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is also taking major steps to catch up with the higher demand for advanced chips. The company is building 24 new factories across the globe....TSMC plans to establish nine such plants by 2025. Eight of them will be used for manufacturing chips and one for creating advanced packaging technology."

This looks like AI generated nonsense. Cliff Hou outlined TSMC's manufacturing plans last week: https://www.tsmc.com/english/node/223

View attachment 3087

AI generated article claiming 24 is par for AI (garbage in, garbage out).

The number 24 includes existing facilities.

AI generated this list:

~Estimated List of 24 TSMC Factories (Existing and Planned)

Wafer Fabs (19)
Existing (12):
1. Fab 12 (Taiwan, 12-inch, Hsinchu)
2. Fab 14 (Taiwan, 12-inch, Tainan)
3. Fab 15 (Taiwan, 12-inch, Taichung)
4. Fab 18 (Taiwan, 12-inch, Tainan)
5. 8-inch Fab 1 (Taiwan)
6. 8-inch Fab 2 (Taiwan)
7. 8-inch Fab 3 (Taiwan)
8. 8-inch Fab 4 (Taiwan)
9. 6-inch Fab (Taiwan)
10. TSMC Nanjing (China, 12-inch)
11. TSMC Washington (USA, 8-inch, WaferTech)
12. TSMC China (Shanghai, 8-inch)

Planned/New (7):
13. Hsinchu Baoshan (Taiwan, 2nm, 2025)
14. Kaohsiung P1 (Taiwan, 2nm, 2025)
15. Arizona Fab 21 Phase 1 (USA, 4nm, 2024)
16. Arizona Fab 21 Phase 2 (USA, 3nm, 2028)
17. Kumamoto JASM 1 (Japan, 12/22/28nm, 2024)
18. Kumamoto JASM 2 (Japan, 6/7nm, 2027)
19. Dresden ESMC (Germany, 28nm/12nm, 2027)

Packaging Fabs (3)
Existing (2):
20. Advanced Backend Fab 6 (Taiwan, Zhunan, 3DFabric, 2023)
21. Chunan Fab (Taiwan, SoIC, 2021)

Planned (1):
22. Tongluo Science Park (Taiwan, 3DFabric, post-2025)

Other Facilities (2)
Existing (1):
23. Global R&D Center (Taiwan, Hsinchu, 2023)

Planned (1):
24. Arizona R&D Center (USA, post-2025)

 

[benb]

1. Fab 12 (Taiwan, 12-inch, Hsinchu)
2. Fab 14 (Taiwan, 12-inch, Tainan)
3. Fab 15 (Taiwan, 12-inch, Taichung)
4. Fab 18 (Taiwan, 12-inch, Tainan)

These all have 7-8 phases. Each phase a 10-20B USD investment. TSMC fab/phase count is near 50.

Intel and Samsung, together, will have 5 leading edge fab/phases in logic. Take the Intel/Samsung total and multiply by 10, and that is the scale TSMC is at compared to Intel/Samsung. As a rule of thumb.

 

[MKWVentures]

1. Fab 12 (Taiwan, 12-inch, Hsinchu)
2. Fab 14 (Taiwan, 12-inch, Tainan)
3. Fab 15 (Taiwan, 12-inch, Taichung)
4. Fab 18 (Taiwan, 12-inch, Tainan)

These all have 7-8 phases. Each phase a 10-20B USD investment. TSMC fab/phase count is near 50.

Intel and Samsung, together, will have 5 leading edge fab/phases in logic. Take the Intel/Samsung total and multiply by 10, and that is the scale TSMC is at compared to Intel/Samsung. As a rule of thumb.

Good info....

How many WSPM is a TSMC phase and factory? How many is Intel Fab.... 42 52 or Fab 34? What about Samsung Texas?

 

[benb]

From the Internet:
In 2024, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was managing nine 300mm wafer fabs. As a global semiconductor market leader, TSMC's wafer manufacturing capacity exceeded 17 million twelve-inch equivalent wafers that year.

My rule of thumb is, 100KWSPM = 1million WSPY.
As a rule of thumb, 100KWSPM is "fully ramped" fab.
So TSMC probably had 17 fully ramped fabs in 2024. Or many (20-30? 30-40?) partially ramped. This is less than the 50 fabs I was estimating above. 2024 was a low capacity utilization year.

From Ian Cutress substack:
Today, Intel creates around 2.5 million wafer starts per year, or ~200k a month.
(This was in April 2024)
My rule of thumb would state that as 2 fabs.

This is why Intel is laying off so many people. Intel can concentrate their production in F52/F62 and F34 in 2025. These sites won't reach 2.5 m in 2025, but maybe 500K (1/4 ramped, or 25K a month each). 1000 people per fab (@ 25K) is enough. $20B dollars (@ 25K, of the eventually $40B) in the hands of 2000 people.

From the Internet:
Samsung has a 100k wafer per month fab in austin texas.

From Gemini:
Samsung Foundry aims to produce 7,000 wafers per month at its Hwaseong plant by Q1 2025 for its 2nm production line. The company is also planning a 1.4nm line at Pyeongtaek Plant 2 with a monthly output of 2,000 to 3,000 wafers by the second quarter of 2025. Additionally, Samsung plans to convert existing 3nm lines in Hwaseong to 2nm, which currently produce around 15,000 wafers per month based on 12-inch wafers.

From Gemini:
Samsung's Pyeongtaek 2 plant will start producing 2,000 to 3,000 1.4nm wafers per month as part of a test production run, according to Wccftech.This capacity will be focused on advanced 1.4 nanometer chip manufacturing, reports Wccftech. The plant is also designated to ramp up production of DRAM, according to TechPowerUp.

It's fair to say, based on this, Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek Foundry lines are partially ramped, nascent really.

Samsung Foundry is not ramping up in 2025, just hanging on.