TSMC to begin pilot program at its Arizona

[FP91G]

TSMC to begin pilot program at its Arizona, USA fab plant for mass production by end of 2024

TSMC is "sprinting" to conduct a trial production of its first production line in mid-April at its new Arizona fabrication plant in the United States, where if these tests go well, mass production is expected at the Arizona plant by the end of the year.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) said yesterday that its Arizona wafer fab plant is making good progress, as planned. The company is expected to hold a press conference on April 18 to provide more details on the exact progress of the Arizona plant.

Read more: TSMC's second fab site in Arizona, USA celebrates its 'topping out' milestone
The new US-based TSMC fab plant will begin mass-producing new 4nm process nodes in the first half of 2025 when the Arizona plant will be in full operation. The new Arizona lab will produce the same quality wafers as its bleeding-edge Taiwan-based facilities.


https://www.tweaktown.com/news/97293/tsmc-to-begin-pilot-program-at-its-arizona-usa-fab-plant-for-mass-production-by-end-of-2024/index.html

[mindrust]

That’s cool. Maybe one day they’ll move the whole factory to the US. They won’t survive for very long otherwise. Sooner or later China will make a move against Taiwan and it won’t be pretty for TSMC when that day comes. It won’t be pretty for anyone but TSMC will get affected more than anybody else.

I wonder if moving their manufacturing to the US will affect their costs though. They will probably have to raise their prices because of that. It is still better than getting invaded by China I guess.

[FP91G]

That’s cool. Maybe one day they’ll move the whole factory to the US. They won’t survive for very long otherwise. Sooner or later China will make a move against Taiwan and it won’t be pretty for TSMC when that day comes. It won’t be pretty for anyone but TSMC will get affected more than anybody else.

I wonder if moving their manufacturing to the US will affect their costs though. They will probably have to raise their prices because of that. It is still better than getting invaded by China I guess.

The US has a much higher standard of living and similar salaries for engineers, so the cost of production will be higher if the government does not provide good benefits for this business. But if China starts a war in Taiwan, then the plant will have more orders than it can fulfill and this will be a very profitable business.

[safar1980]

TSMC Facilities to Resume
Production Overnight After Quake
Chipmakers move some staff off of unspecified operation areas
The earthquake rocked Taiwan and triggered tsunami warnings
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said it expects to resume production overnight at facilities that were earlier interrupted after the biggest earthquake in 25 years struck its home island.

TSMC, the main contract chipmaker to Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp., moved staff out of certain areas after a temblor measuring 7.4 in magnitude off the east coast on Wednesday morning.

[FP91G]

NVIDIA and AMD have reserved all of TSMC's CoWOS and SoIC advanced packaging for 2024 and 2025
NVIDIA and AMD have purchased all of TSMC's advanced packaging production capacity including CoWoS and SoIC for 2024 and 2025: they're 'fully booked'.
AMD and NVIDIA are both pumping out new generations of AI hardware, with the two GPU giants eating all of TSMC's advanced packaging capacity for not just 2024, but also 2025.
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/98055/nvidia-and-amd-have-reserved-all-of-tsmcs-cowos-soic-advanced-packaging-for-2024-2025/index.html

[safar1980]

TSMC says construction of first European plant on track to start in fourth quarter
Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC (2330.TW), opens new tab plans to start construction of its first European facility in the fourth quarter of 2024, it said on Tuesday.
At a conference in the Netherlands, TSMC's European chief Paul de Bot said the facility in the German city of Dresden, known as European Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (ESMC), was on track for construction to begin this year with production in 2027.
Last August TSMC announced plans for the $11 billion factory in Germany, with Infineon (IFXGn.DE), opens new tab , NXP(NXPI.O), opens new tab, and Robert Bosch each taking a 10% stake.

[OgNasty]

That’s cool. Maybe one day they’ll move the whole factory to the US. They won’t survive for very long otherwise. Sooner or later China will make a move against Taiwan and it won’t be pretty for TSMC when that day comes. It won’t be pretty for anyone but TSMC will get affected more than anybody else.

I wonder if moving their manufacturing to the US will affect their costs though. They will probably have to raise their prices because of that. It is still better than getting invaded by China I guess.

The US has a much higher standard of living and similar salaries for engineers, so the cost of production will be higher if the government does not provide good benefits for this business. But if China starts a war in Taiwan, then the plant will have more orders than it can fulfill and this will be a very profitable business.

I suspect they won't have any problems finding orders for this plant.  It's for sure going to be extremely profitable no matter what happens.  It's also in a pretty new area where the cost of living is extremely cheap and everything is brand new.  They have access to cheap, clean nuclear energy, as much sunlight as a solar panel can want, plenty of room for expansion, and it's located right next to a major interstate.  There's a reason why Amazon, Walmart, UPS, and others have giant properties out here.  I think this was a great move by TSMC.  Maybe I'll go see if they need any Financial Analysts. 

[FP91G]

TSMC will build 7 new plants this year, to boost its global competitiveness
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) will build 7 new plants this year to increase its global competitiveness, ready for the future of chips.
The 7 new plants will include 3 new wafer plants, 2 new packaging factories in Taiwan, and two new wafer plants overseas. These new facilities are being built, or about to be built, to meet the fast-growing global demand for high-performance computing devices and smartphones, says Huang Yuan-kuo, head of the FAB18 plant in Tainan, at the TSMC 2024 Taiwan Technology Symposium.


https://www.tweaktown.com/news/98509/tsmc-will-build-7-new-plants-this-year-to-boost-its-global-competitiveness/index.html

[safar1980]

TSMC Outlines Path  to EUV Success: More Tools, More Wafers, & Best Pellicles In Industry
Although TSMC can't claim to be the first fab to use extreme UV (EUV) lithography – that title goes to Samsung – they do get to claim to be the largest. As a result, the company has developed significant experience with EUV over the years, allowing TSMC to refine how they use EUV tooling to both improve productivity/uptime, and to cut down on the costs of using the ultra-fine tools. As part of the company's European Technology Symposium this week, they went into a bit more detail on their EUV usage history, and their progress on further integrating EUV into future process nodes.

When TSMC started making chips using EUV lithography in 2019 on its N7+ process (for Huawei's HiSilicon), it held 42% of the world's installed base of EUV tools, and even as ASML ramped up shipments of EUV scanners in 2020, TSMC's share of EUV installations actually increased to 50%. And jumping ahead to 2024, where the number of EUV litho systems at TSMC has increased by 10-fold from 2019, TSMC is now 56% of the global EUV installed base, despite Samsung and Intel ramping up their own EUV production. Suffice it to say, TSMC made a decision to go in hard on EUV early on, and as a result they still have the lion's share of EUV scanners today.

[tuaris]

No doubt that we need these fabs to come to the US, but I can not help but wonder how much special treatment TSMC is getting in the process.