TSMC: Yields at US Chip Factory Comparable to Domestic Facilities, Transferring 2 Core Technologies to the US
At the recent North America Technology Forum, TSMC announced new process technologies such as A13, A12, and N2U, and also discussed its chip layout strategy in the US. A major concern regarding building factories in the US has been the high costs and potential impact on TSMC's profits, primarily reflected in yields. CEO C.C. Wei stated that TSMC's chip factory in Arizona is progressing smoothly, and yields are already comparable to those of its domestic facilities.
However, he did not provide specific figures. TSMC's US chip factory currently mainly produces 4nm process chips, which is already a relatively mature and stable process within TSMC's facilities.
TSMC's total investment in chips in the US will reach $165 billion, and it is currently building a second fab, which is expected to begin production next year.
The transfer of advanced chip capacity to the US is not a one-time event. Currently, the chips produced still need to be shipped back to Taiwan for packaging, as the US factory does not yet have advanced packaging technology.
To address this, TSMC will also build advanced packaging factories in the US, transferring the core technologies of CoWoS and 3D-IC to the US. TSMC Senior Vice President and Co-COO Zhang Xiaogang has confirmed that a packaging plant will be completed in the US by 2029.
Although CoWoS and 3D-IC are packaging technologies, their technical difficulty and processing costs are no less than those of advanced processes. High-end CPUs and GPUs from companies like Apple, NVIDIA, and AMD all rely on these technologies, and they can even more easily lead to capacity constraints than advanced processes alone.
Once the US chip factory achieves advanced process production and advanced packaging and testing, combined with the US's already strong chip design capabilities, the advantage in the entire semiconductor industry chain will return, which is of great significance.