TSMC Having Problems in Arizona, Increasing Investment in Japan

Things are apparently anything but smooth for TSMC when it comes to its US expansion in Arizona, as reports claim that the construction of its new fab in Arizona is going to be late. This is largely due to labour shortages caused by the pandemic, which in turn is set to delay the entire project. As such, it’s being suggested that the installation of manufacturing equipment will be delayed from late Q3 this year until Q1 next year. The knock on effect of this is that production is unlikely to start in Q1 2024 and will most likely be delayed to sometime in the second half of 2024. As a comparison, TSMC normally spends two years to build and configure their fabs in Asia, whereas their first expansion outside of Asia is set to take at least two and a half years.

Another issue is said to be related to finding the right staff, since not only TSMC, but also Intel is looking for competent staff in Arizona. Intel might be the winner here, as TSMC is said to already have complaints from some of its employees, especially from western countries. The main complaint is about excessively long meetings that can add several hours to their workdays. Other complaints revolve around long working hours, as the company employs 12 hour shifts for its engineers and they are often on call over weekends. The company has apparently become increasingly demanding when it comes to its workforce, although TSMC has apparently improved in some ways, based on changes to the Taiwanese labour laws.

On the brighter side, Japanese Denso has been confirmed as an investor in TSMC’s Japanese fab. This in turn has led TSMC to increase its own investment in Japan and the total investment will increase from close to US$7 billion to around US$8.6 billion. What this means in more practical terms is that the new fab will get an additional production line for 12 and 16 nanometer chips and an increased capacity of 55,000 12-inch wafers per month, up from 45,000. This is a big step up from the previously planned 22 and 28 nm production lines and would see a much wider range of chips being possible to produce here. Denso will have slightly more than 10 percent overship in the joint venture, with Sony sitting on around 20 percent, with TSMC as the majority shareholder.