TSMC to Invest $2.9 Billion in New Plant as Demand for AI Chips Surges
In Hong Kong, TSMC, the foremost global chip manufacturer, has unveiled its ambitious plan to invest nearly 90 billion New Taiwan dollars (equivalent to $2.9 billion) in the construction of an advanced chip fabrication facility situated in Taiwan. This strategic initiative stems from the imperative to expand production capabilities in order to effectively cater to the surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products.
CEO C.C. Wei, in recent discussions with analysts, elucidated the company's strategic vision of approximately doubling its advanced packaging capacity by the year 2024, in stark comparison to the capacity witnessed in 2023. This tactical augmentation is a direct response to the "strong demand" for AI chips articulated by the company's valued clientele, a distinguished roster including industry titans like Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD.
Within the semiconductor domain, advanced packaging encompasses the deployment of cutting-edge methodologies to synergistically amalgamate components sourced from diverse wafers, culminating in the creation of more robust and high-performance computer chips.
In its recent financial report, TSMC noted a 23% decrease in net profit during the second quarter in comparison to the corresponding period in the prior year. The global economic slowdown has evidently impacted overall demand, even as customers continued to demonstrate fervent interest in procuring more of the company's AI chips.
TSMC-manufactured chips, integral to the operations of eminent entities like Nvidia, play a pivotal role in powering generative AI. This variant of artificial intelligence is responsible for generating novel content, such as text and images, based on user prompts. This underpins the foundation of AI systems like ChatGPT, Google's Bard, and Dall-E, along with a myriad of other emerging AI technologies.
