Six plants over next three years?
TSMC announced its first Arizona plant one year ago. The initial Phase 1 factory is a $12 billion investment to set up a 300mm wafer fab in Phoenix. This facility is expected to start mass production in 2024. Production will start using the 5nm process and the plant has a planned wafer output of 20,000 wafers.It's a relatively modest start in Arizona but it appears TSMC's plans are a lot bigger. Internally, the Taiwanese foundry is reportedly considering making its Arizona operations a giant plant with six fabs. One of Reuters' sources claimed TSMC plans to start building all six fabs over the next three years.
According to TSMC, the foundry decides expansion based on operational efficiency, cost economics, and customer demand. The foundry recently announced it would invest a massive $100 billion over the next three years to increase production capacity.
TSMC is the world leader in the semiconductor foundry market. It's the largest player and it offers the most advanced production capacity. At the moment, there is a big shortage of foundry capacity, especially at cutting-edge nodes.