Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest foundry (semiconductor consignment production) company, has decided to invest in large-scale additional semiconductors in the United States. Despite the severe recession, competition for semiconductor facilities is getting hotter. As the industry’s No. 1 company has made aggressive investments again, Samsung Electronics’ investment, which aims to overtake the foundry leader in 2030, is expected to become more bold.
According to the industry, TSMC officially announced on the 6th (local time) that it would more than triple the size of semiconductor investment in the United States from $ 12 billion to $ 40 billion at a Phoenix plant equipment event in Arizona.
While participating in the reorganization of the semiconductor supply chain led by the US, it embarked on an active localization strategy against US fabless (design) companies. The US responded immediately. Major US companies such as Apple and AMD have already revealed their position that they will use semiconductor chips produced by TSMC at its Arizona plant.
“Now, thanks to the efforts of many people, these semiconductors are proudly marked Made in America,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the equipment introduction ceremony. “This is an incredibly important moment.” TSMC currently manufactures semiconductors for iPhones and iPads, but most of them are produced in Taiwanese factories.
The Arizona plant to be built this time will manufacture 4-nano and 3-nano semiconductors used in Nvidia’s graphics processors, along with Apple’s A series semiconductors for iPhones and M series semiconductors for MacBooks. TSMC has not only Apple, but also Amazon, Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Advanced Micro Devices as customers, so its influence in the US mainland is expected to grow even more.
Intel seeking a comeback “Investment will not back down”
American company Intel, which is aiming for a comeback in the foundry market, also announced steady investment with its own country first.
Previously, in October, Intel announced that it would enter into restructuring, including job cuts, in preparation for poor performance due to reduced PC demand and concerns about economic recession. On the other hand, the trend of expanding investment is expected to continue. According to Bloomberg News, Intel Vice President Ann Kelleher held a press conference in San Francisco on the 5th (local time) and said, “We will not reduce the budget to regain semiconductor production leadership.”
We were also confident of our superiority in technology competition. “Intel is on track to meet or exceed our quarterly targets (milestones),” said Kelleher. “Thanks to strong growth in our foundry business, we are fully on track.”
Intel has fallen behind TSMC and Samsung Electronics in the ultra-fine fair competition, but is now said to be ready to enter the production of 4-nano semiconductors. The 4-nano process is at a similar level to the production technology that TSMC is applying to the Phoenix plant in the US.
Samsung Electronics presents “one factory per year” strategy
Samsung Electronics is deepening its concerns in order not to fall behind in the battle for supremacy in the ultra-fine process.
Samsung Electronics is building a second foundry plant in Taylor, Texas, USA, with an investment of $17 billion. However, in order to keep pace with TSMC’s successive investment expansion, additional investment is inevitable.
The card presented by Samsung Electronics is the ‘One Year One New Fab’ strategy. It is a concrete strategy to build a ‘clean room’ that can produce semiconductors first and build facilities according to demand. As it takes six months to build a clean room, the plan is to increase market share by building a clean room first and selectively introducing additional facilities according to demand in order to respond quickly to market conditions. Samsung Electronics plans to increase its foundry production capacity by 3.4 times the previous level by using this method.