TSMC gets approval to build 2nm chip factory in Taiwan – IT Pro – News

TSMC has been granted permission to build a new chip factory in Taiwan. This new factory is to produce 2nm chips and will be located in Hsinchu County, one of the most important chip production locations in Taiwan.

TSMC received approval from Taiwan’s Environmental Review Committee on Wednesday, business newspaper writes Nikkei Asia. With this, the company has officially received the green light for the construction of its 2nm factory. Construction was to start next year. In 2023, the chipmaker is expected to start installing production equipment at the new factory. The 2nm factory will be built near the according to Nikkei Asia township Baoshan and would cover about 20 hectares.

It is not yet clear when TSMC will start production of 2nm chips. The company’s current roadmap goes to 3nm; that process should be ready for test production by the end of this year and more large-scale 3nm production should start next year. TSMC wrote earlier this year in its annual report that its 2nm node, aka ‘N2’, is ‘progressing well through the pipeline’. TSMC will switch with its N2 process to gaatransistors, but the company has not yet released any technical details about its 2nm node.

In addition to this new 2nm chip factory, TSMC is also expanding outside of Taiwan to diversify its production chain and facilitate the demand from overseas customers. Company currently working to a factory in the US state of Arizona, where 5nm chips will be produced from 2024. According to Reuters sources, the company want to build more chip factories in the US. Earlier this month, TSMC announced that it is also considering a chip factory in Japan and is evaluating the possibility of its first European chip factory to be built in Germany.

These expansion plans, according to government officials, would weaken Taiwan’s “strategic importance” in the long term, making it crucial for the country to keep TSMC’s most advanced manufacturing technologies domestic. That is what Taiwanese government officials tell Nikkei Asia. “It’s okay for TSMC to expand its overseas business, but from a geopolitical perspective, it’s very important for Taiwan to let TSMC build its most advanced technology domestically,” said a Taiwanese government source, who is well known. with ‘the thinking of the government of Tsai Ing-wen’ to the business newspaper.