In the past two years, due to the shortage of semiconductor production capacity, as a leading global wafer foundry enterprise, TSMC has been busy expanding production capacity, including the construction of new wafer factories or the expansion of existing production lines. There are many plans in China and the United States at the same time.
According to relevant media reports, TSMC has a new plan recently. This time, the target is not the European region rumored in the past, but Singapore. It is said that it is currently negotiating with the Singapore Economic Development Authority. According to the official statement of TSMC, at this stage, "no possibility is excluded, but there is no specific plan at present".
It is understood that TSMC plans to build a wafer factory in Singapore, which will adopt the 7Nm to 28nm process. In other words, it is not entirely an advanced production line. TSMC is currently building similar production facilities. The wafer plant in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, China, China is scheduled to start operation in 2024. Even if TSMC finally decides to build a plant in Singapore, since it will take several years to build the facilities, it will be put into operation later, and the selection of process nodes may eventually change.
TSMC is not the first new or expanded wafer foundry in Singapore in recent years. Global foundries announced last year to build a new 300mm wafer factory in Singapore, expand its wafer production capacity in Singapore, manufacture chips for cars, 5g mobile networks and security equipment, and invest US $4 billion. At the beginning of this year, UMC announced a similar plan to build a new manufacturing plant next to its 300mm wafer plant (Fab 12I) in Singapore, equipped with a production line of 22 / 28nm process, with an investment of US $5 billion.