TSMC Said to be Eyeing Singapore for Fab Expansion

The rumour mill never seems to stop churning when it comes to TSMC and now the company is said to be looking at the tiny nation of Singapore for a future fab. This time the information comes via the Wall Street Journal rather than the usual Taiwanese sources and although the publication points out that no decision has been made at this point in time, it says that TSMC is apparently in talks with the Economic Development Board of Singapore. The official statement from the TSMC on the matter is that the company “doesn’t rule out any possibility but does not have any concrete plan at this time”.

The potential Singapore Fab would be producing 28 to 7 nm chips, in other words, quite far from TSMC’s cutting edge nodes. However, TSMC is already building a similar facility in the southern city of Kaohsiung in Taiwan that’s scheduled for opening in 2024. As such, the nodes used in a future facility in Singapore might change depending on when the fab will open and it might end up producing chips on more advanced nodes as well. As these fabs take a few years to get going, they’re not projects that are started on a whim. We should also mention that TSMC already has a joint venture in Singapore together with NXP, called SSMC, which also produces for third parties.