TSMC to Invest Over $200 Billion in Building 10+ New Wafer Fabs in Taiwan for 2nm and 3nm Production in Next 5 Years

According to a report from Taiwan's Business Times, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will build over ten 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer wafer fabs in Taiwan within the next five years, with a total investment of over $200 billion. These advanced process fabs will have a combined monthly production capacity of 30,000 wafers, and will also drive the development of the materials and equipment supply chain.

TSMC's 3-nanometer production hub is primarily located in the Fab 18 facility in the Southern Taiwan Science Park. The company has already completed four 3-nanometer wafer fabs in Fab 18 phases five to eight, and will consider building a ninth 3-nanometer wafer fab based on market demand.

As for TSMC's 2-nanometer wafer fabs, they are expected to be located in the Hsinchu and Taichung science parks, with a total of six phases currently in progress. According to TSMC's publicly disclosed information, the Fab 20, an ultra-large 2-nanometer wafer fab being built in the Baoshan phase two of the Hsinchu Science Park, will have four wafer fabs in phases one to four. TSMC is also seeking to expand its land use plan for the second phase of the Central Taiwan Science Park, and will build two additional 2-nanometer wafer fabs once the land is secured.

In January of this year, TSMC President Wei Che-Chia announced the progress of the 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer technologies at a press conference. He stated that the 3-nanometer process was already in production in the fourth quarter of last year, and that the demand from high-performance computing and smartphone customers exceeded supply capacity. TSMC plans to achieve full capacity production by 2023. The upgraded 3-nanometer (N3E) process will also enter production in the third quarter of this year.

Wei Che-Chia also said that the 3-nanometer and N3E processes will contribute a high single-digit percentage (approximately 4% to 6%) of TSMC's revenue this year, with a revenue contribution higher than that of the 5-nanometer process in its first year of production. The number of customer product design confirmations will also be more than twice that of the 5-nanometer process.

Regarding the 2-nanometer process, Wei Che-Chia stated that the progress is better than originally expected, and risk production will begin in 2024, with mass production in 2025. TSMC's 2-nanometer technology is reportedly 10-15% faster than the 3-nanometer process at the same power consumption, and 25-30% lower power consumption at the same speed.