TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — TSMC plans to build nine new plants worldwide this year, including advanced process and advanced packaging facilities, to expand its global footprint.
The company said it also started construction on nine plants last year, most of which were advanced wafer fabs. The number rose from three in 2022 to six in 2024, reflecting growing demand for advanced process and packaging capacity, per Economic Daily News.
The company plans to expand its 3-nm wafer fab at the Southern Taiwan Science Park this year. It will also convert part of the 5-nm capacity at Fab 18 to 3-nm production to meet rising demand for high-performance computing devices and AI chips.
TSMC said construction of its second wafer fab in Arizona has been completed. The facility will adopt 3-nm process technology and is expected to begin mass production in the second half of next year.
Its third fab in the state is under construction and may use 2-nm technology.
The company is also seeking US government approval to begin construction of its fourth fab and first advanced packaging facility in Arizona. It aims to turn the state into a major hub for semiconductor manufacturing.
In November 2025, the company began construction of four 1.4-nm wafer fabs at the Central Taiwan Science Park with an investment of about NT$1.5 trillion (US$45 billion).
The first fab is expected to begin trial production before the end of next year and start mass production in the second half of 2028. The facility is reportedly expected to have a monthly capacity of 50,000 wafers.
TSMC Senior Vice President and Deputy Co-COO Cliff Hou (侯永清) said the company will continue expanding capacity in Taiwan, Arizona, Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture, and Germany’s Dresden. He added that packaging capacity is also being expanded in response to rising demand for chip-on-wafer-on-substrate advanced packaging technology driven by AI growth.
The packaging technology integrates chips and high-bandwidth memory on a single interface to reduce data transmission between chips and improve computing performance.
Hou added the company’s second wafer fab in Kumamoto has been under construction since October 2025. The facility is expected to use 3-nm process technology and begin production in 2028.
