TSMC Increases U.S. Investment by $100 Billion

According to reports, TSMC announced on March 4th that it will increase its investment in the United States to $165 billion. The company plans to build three new wafer fabs and two advanced packaging plants. This move has placed significant pressure on major South Korean semiconductor companies, such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which may also be forced to increase their investments in the U.S.

As part of the plan, the three wafer fabs will include a Phase 1 4nm facility, which has already begun mass production, and a Phase 2 3nm facility, originally scheduled for 2026 but now postponed until 2028. Once completed, these two fabs will have an annual production capacity of over 600,000 wafers, with an estimated market value exceeding $40 billion. The additional Phase 3 fabs will produce 2nm or more advanced process technologies, with mass production expected between 2029 and 2030.

TSMC emphasized that this expansion underscores its commitment to supporting leading U.S. AI and technology innovation companies, including Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom, and Qualcomm.

Earlier, Samsung had already committed to investing over $37 billion in the U.S., while SK Hynix plans to invest $3.87 billion to build a semiconductor production facility. Samsung's wafer fab will be located in Taylor, Texas, with operations aimed to start in 2026, and SK Hynix is planning to build a semiconductor packaging plant in Indiana, with production expected to begin in 2028. Both companies' investments were initially much lower than TSMC's previously announced $65 billion commitment.

With TSMC's additional $100 billion investment and its increasingly close collaboration with local chip design companies, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and other South Korean semiconductor firms are expected to face growing challenges. Without expanding their own investments in the U.S., they may risk being sidelined in the future.