Recently, TSMC's board of directors approved the investment and construction of a factory in Dresden, Germany, at a price of no more than 3.499 billion euros. It is reported that the investment and construction of the factory includes funding from the German government. The federal government has promised to provide 5 billion euros to support the construction of the factory. All procedures have been completed so far.
TSMC will invest 3.5 billion euros to own a 70 percent stake in the Dresden-based joint venture, which will be controlled by Germany's Robert Bosch, Infineon Technologies and the Netherlands' NXP Semiconductors. 10% of shares. However, it is subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions.
The total investment is expected to exceed 10 billion euros, including equity injection, debt borrowing and strong support from the EU and German governments. The factory will be operated by TSMC.
The plant will be TSMC's first production base in Europe, with construction set to begin in the second half of 2024 and production to begin in late 2027. The planned fab is expected to have a monthly capacity of 40,000 300mm (12-inch) wafers, using TSMC's 28/22nm planar CMOS and 16/12nm FinFET process technologies, and the semiconductors produced in Dresden will not use TSMC's The latest technology, but an older generation of chips in line with the automotive industry. The facility will create approximately 2,000 direct high-tech professional jobs.
TSMC President Wei Zhejia said in a statement, "The investment in Dresden demonstrates TSMC's commitment to meeting customers' strategic capacity and technology needs, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to deepen our long-term partnerships with Bosch, Infineon and NXP." He added, "Europe is a very promising place for semiconductor innovation, especially in the automotive and industrial sectors, and we look forward to working with the talent in Europe to bring these innovations to life using our advanced silicon technologies."
According to the statement, TSMC, Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG and NXP Semiconductors NV announced on August 8 that they plan to jointly invest in European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC) GmbH in Dresden, Germany, to provide advanced semiconductor manufacturing Serve. ESMC marks a major step towards building a 300mm fab to support future capacity needs in the fast-growing automotive and industrial sectors, with a final investment decision pending confirmation of the level of public funding for the project. The project is planned within the framework of the Eurochip Act.
Let’s talk about TSMC’s previous progress in building a factory in the United States. Now TSMC’s progress in setting up a factory in Arizona has fallen behind, and it has announced that the mass production time will be postponed from 2024 to 2025. Liu Deyin, chairman of TSMC, blamed this on a shortage of workers with special expertise in building fabs. The leader of the Arizona union in the United States criticized TSMC for using this as an excuse to introduce "lower-paid foreign workers" to cause controversy.
This matter forced TSMC to come forward to respond, saying that it is currently the most important stage of the Arizona plant. The most advanced and sophisticated equipment requires skilled and experienced professionals to perform specific projects. Therefore, professionals are temporarily dispatched from Taiwan, China to Arizona, the United States to support related work. , to support the fab's move to mass production. TSMC emphasized that this matter will not affect the allocation of 1,200 local on-site employees, nor will it affect the recruitment work in the United States. In addition, TSMC has no plan to replace local workers with foreign staff. At present, suppliers continue to recruit local construction personnel for positions such as electricity, sheet metal and welding.
Regarding the issue of staff deployment, TSMC power plants in the United States often have disputes, and their production costs are as high as 2-3 times that of Taiwan, China.
The progress of TSMC's factory construction in Japan is obviously much smoother. It is reported that the office building on the east side of the Kumamoto factory site will be completed and opened in August. It is expected that 350 people will arrive in Kumamoto in August and 250 people in September. These engineers and their families will live in Kumamoto, Kikuyo, Koshi and Otsu in Japan.
According to Japanese media reports, TSMC previously planned to send about 300 engineers from Taiwan to support, but now about 400 engineers are about to arrive in Kumamoto, including 750 people including family members, which has exceeded the original expected number.
TSMC, Sony Semiconductor, and DENSO Corporation jointly established JASM Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Company last year, and it is expected to recruit 1,500 employees locally.
TSMC uses multi-point layout to reduce risks. However, it remains to be seen how TSMC will build a factory in Germany. However, it is puzzling that the manufacturing of chips itself consumes a lot of water and electricity, which is equivalent to a large energy-consuming household. Energy prices are soaring Is Germany's power generation enough for TSMC?
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IR (Infineon Technologies)