Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has announced an investment of 100 billion dollars (85 billion euros). The company plans to significantly scale up its production capacity over the next three years.
This is a considerable scaling up from the 28 billion dollars (24 billion euros) that TSMC was already planning to spend this year. However, the recent chip shortages show demand for even more capacity than the company had anticipated. Bloomberg writes that the company wants to work with its customers in all sorts of industries to handle the deluge of demand.
Massive investments
Bloomberg wonders where TSMC intends to get that money from. At the end of December, it appeared to have some 28 billion dollars in cash and equivalent at its disposal. It does underline how much money it takes to stay ahead in the chip industry. Part of these investments will go to a new factory in the American state of Arizona, which will cost 12 billion dollars (over 10 billion euros). According to Nikkei Asia, the company is also working on a new factory in Taiwan where it wants to produce 3nm chips.
Samsung follows TSMC closely
TSMC currently leads in chip technology, closely followed by Samsung Electronics, which had also previously announced an investment of 100 billion. However, that is a ten-year investment. The company is also already developing its 3nm process, possibly in a new factory in Texas.
Intel trying to catch up
Intel is working hard to catch up and has recently announced its plans to outsource its production capacity. Like TSMC, the company is working on a new chip factory in Arizona, but it also has plans for new factories in Europe. Global Foundries has already indicated that it no longer wants to try to keep up with the latest developments in chip production.
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