Taiwan TSMC, the world's largest foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturer), said it plans to open a semiconductor packaging plant in Arizona before 2029.
According to Reuters on the 22nd (local time), Kevin Zhang, TSMC senior vice president, said ahead of a conference in Santa Clara, California, in an interview with Reuters the previous day, "We are aggressively expanding production capacity at the Arizona facility."
He then mentioned the packaging technologies "chip on wafer on substrate" (CoWos) and three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D-IC), saying, "We will build (capabilities related to these processes) there before 2029," adding, "That is still our goal."
TSMC said at the conference on the 22nd that construction has already begun. Earlier, at its earnings announcement in Jan., TSMC said it had applied to U.S. authorities for permission to break ground on its first advanced packaging plant within its existing Arizona production complex, but did not present a specific timetable at the time.
The latest artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors are not simply a single chip but are made by combining multiple chips using advanced packaging technology, and this process has been identified as a bottleneck in semiconductor supply.
Nvidia and Apple already receive semiconductors from TSMC's Arizona plant, but a significant number of those chips are sent back to Taiwan for packaging.
Zhang also said that technology-related discussions between the U.S. semiconductor packaging company Amkor Technology and TSMC are still underway.
The two companies said in 2024 that they would cooperate to bring several of TSMC's advanced packaging technologies to Arizona, but the details have not been disclosed.
Amkor Technology said last year it is in talks with Nvidia and Apple with the goal of building a packaging plant in Arizona by mid-next year and starting operations in early 2028, which is faster than TSMC's timetable.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that Zhang said there are currently no plans to introduce ASML's most advanced semiconductor lithography equipment and that adoption will be deferred until 2029 to cut expense.
ASML, a Dutch semiconductor equipment maker, has unveiled "High Numerical Aperture (High-NA) EUV," which can print circuits more finely than existing extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment to increase the integration density of AI chips. The price is more than €350 million (about 600 billion won), double that of previous equipment.
He said, "We can continue to generate revenue using current EUV equipment," adding that the price of the new equipment is "very, very expensive." This stance by TSMC, its biggest customer, is seen as a negative for ASML.
In addition, Zhang said TSMC's first advanced chip manufacturing base in the United States is progressing well, noting that the yield of the first Arizona production facility is similar to that of the Taiwan plant and the second plant will begin operations next year.
He added that the latest A13 chip is scheduled to enter production in 2029.