TSMC is considering building a new fab in Germany
Last year, the European Union launched a package of plans, hoping to fully control the design and production of advanced chips in the future. 17 of the 27 EU countries jointly issued a European Processor and Semiconductor Technology Plan Joint Statement, which aims to encourage the EU to jointly research and invest in advanced processors and semiconductor processes. Among them, the worry about semiconductor production is greater than chip design.
To this end, the European Union has planned a plan to increase the share of the global semiconductor market, hoping to occupy 20% of the global chip production by 2030. The current ratio is 10%, which is lower than East Asia and North America. In order to achieve this goal as soon as possible, the European Union intends to attract wafer foundries from other regions to build new wafer fabs in Europe through preferential policies, so Intel has been in frequent contact with EU officials recently.
The EU also hopes that TSMC and Samsung can build new wafer fabs in Europe. TSMC was not cold at first because most of its customers are not in Europe. According to Reuters and Nikkei Asia, TSMC may change its mind and build a fab in Germany, which is currently in the preliminary stage of review. TSMC stated that it is too early to make a conclusion. First, it will communicate with major customers in Germany to assess the exact needs to determine whether this approach is necessary.
At present, Europe is not the center of chip development, and generally designed chips rarely require TSMC’s advanced technology. Even if a fab with N2 or N3 process nodes is built, the symbolic meaning is greater than the actual meaning. Nevertheless, the European automobile manufacturing and telecommunications fields are in great need of the capacity of mature process nodes, and it is still attractive to be able to manufacture in closer places. However, in addition to manufacturing, packaging, and testing are also required, but TSMC’s facilities in this area are basically in East Asia, even if most independent outsourcing companies that can provide similar services are also the case. This means that even after manufacturing in Europe, it still needs to be shipped to Asia for packaging and testing, and the effect is greatly reduced. If TSMC is really determined to build a new fab in Europe, it seems that it needs to localize the entire industrial chain, and things will not be so simple and easy.
