Construction of TSMC's 2nd fab in Kumamoto to start in Q1 2025

Taipei, Oct. 17 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, said construction of its second advanced wafer fab in Kumamoto, Japan is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of next year.

At an investor conference, TSMC Chairman and CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家), said a joint venture led by the chipmaker has started land preparation work for the second fab in Kumamoto with construction slated to begin in the first quarter of 2025 to roll out chips for consumer electronics, automotive, industrial and high performance computing (HPC) use. Commercial production is expected to start in 2027.

Wei said the first plant in Kumamoto, which officially opened on Feb. 24 through the joint venture -- Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, Inc. (JASM) -- is proceeding very smoothly with all production technologies certified, and will start mass production in the fourth quarter of this year.

In Kumamoto, TSMC will produce more than 100,000 wafers a month, using its 40 nanometer, 22nm, 28nm, 12nm, 16nm, 7nm and 6nm processes.

JSMC is owned by TSMC, Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corp., Denso Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp.

In the U.S. state of Arizona, where TSMC is building two advanced wafer fabs and plans a third, Wei said the first plant conducted a trial run in April, using the 4nm process with satisfactory yield rates, and commercial production is scheduled to begin in early 2025.

The second fab in Arizona will roll out chips made on the more sophisticated 3nm and 2nm processes and mass production is scheduled in 2028.

The third facility in Arizona will produce chips using 2nm or more advanced processes, with production beginning by the end of the decade.

In August, TSMC broke ground on a 12-inch wafer fab in Dresden, Germany through a joint venture called European Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (ESMC), which includes Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG and NXP Semiconductors N.V.

The Dresden plant is scheduled to launch mass production at the end of 2027 and will cater to automotive and industrial use, Wei said.

TSMC Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang (黃仁昭) told the conference that the company's overseas plants are likely to affect its gross margin -- the difference between revenue and the cost of goods sold -- by about 2-3 percentage points starting from 2025.