TERAFAB? The main principle is that the fab has to be run by TSMC, whether it is similar to its Japan or Europe model, company chief executive officer C.C. Wei said
By Lisa Wang / Staff reporter
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co （TSMC, 台積電） yesterday said it is in discussions with a customer to secure wafer capacity supply in Texas, potentially extending its US manufacturing footprint beyond Arizona to satisfy surging demand from customers for artificial intelligence （AI） chips.
“Recently, we did expand our capacity consideration to see whether we can get another chance to expand our capacity outside Arizona, and Texas is the one,” TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei （魏哲家） said at the company’s earnings conference.
“So we sent our teams to Texas to do all the evaluation and we also talked to one of our customers who is trying to build a fab, TeraFab. And we are discussing with them to see whether we can utilize that actual capacity,” Wei said.
The main principle is that “the fab [has] got to be run by TSMC,” no matter the framework — whether it is similar to the company’s joint venture in Japan or the structure adopted in Europe, he said.
TSMC believes accelerating capacity in the US is “necessary,” he said, citing demand to ramp up onshore production from major customers there.
The company in July increased its US investment to US$265 billion.
TSMC yesterday said it remains committed to the AI mega trend, rebuffing skepticism over the profitability and sustainability of such investments.
“We observe increasing AI demand fueled by the rising adoption of agentic AI as we transition from chatbots to AI assistants,” Wei said.
“In addition, we are observing greater adoption of open-source AI models. This will drive greater efficiency and help lower the barrier to future AI usage, and result in more and more demand for leading-edge silicon,” he added.
Customer demand is far higher than what TSMC can supply, the company said, adding that it is adopting many approaches to maximize capacity support.
“We have no intention to leave food on the table for others and we want to capture every piece of business possible,” Wei said.
Addressing competition from Intel Corp’s EMIB-T packaging technology, Wei highlighted TSMC’s unmatched market position, saying that the company offers highly competitive packaging technologies — producing 5.5-reticle size chip-on-wafer-on-substrate （CoWoS） and planning larger versions.
“I don’t believe that any company can do that today except TSMC. And the yield is excellent,” he said, adding that the company’s CoWoS products are the “No. 1 choice” for customers.
Asked if TSMC would provide CoWoS capacity as a contingency for customers should Intel fail to deliver its EMIB-T solutions, Wei said that it would.
TSMC’s ultimate priority is ensuring customers have smooth product rollouts, he said.
The company said it expects revenue this quarter to expand to US$52.3 billion to US$54.3 billion due to increasing demand for its leading-edge technologies, including the 2-nanometer process.
The mid-point of the revenue projection would represent sequential growth of 14 percent from US$46.72 billion last quarter.
Revenue is expected to expand about 44 percent in US dollar terms annually for the whole of this year, TSMC said.
It said it expects its 2-nanometer capacity to more than double next year from this year.
The company said it plans to build one more 3-nanometer plant in Tainan, with volume production scheduled in the first half of 2028.
Gross margin is forecast at 65 to 67 percent, compared with 66.4 percent last quarter, due to dilution from the steep ramp-up of 2-nanometer technology, TSMC said.
Net profit last quarter hit a new record at NT$763.06 billion （US$23.65 billion）, up 8 percent from NT$706.56 billion a quarter earlier and 68.7 percent from NT$452.3 billion in the same period last year.
Earnings per share advanced to NT$29.43 from NT$27.25 in the second quarter and NT$17.44 a year earlier.
新聞來源：
TAIPEI TIMES