TSMC has increased its efforts to transfer advanced processes overseas in recent years, investing up to US$165 billion in the United States. In the future, 2nm and 1.4nm processes will be produced in the United States. The second key investment area is Japan. In the past few years, the first wafer fab was built in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, mainly producing chips with 28 to 12nm processes. Recently, TSMC has confirmed that an agreement has been reached for the second wafer fab and is expected to start operations in 2027.
The factory will be located on the east side of the Kumamoto Factory 1, with a construction area of 69,000 square feet, and is expected to contribute more than 1,700 jobs. The two factories will employ a total of approximately 3,400 employees.
The chip technology produced by this wafer factory has also been greatly upgraded, directly reaching the 6nm node.It is mainly used in industries such as autonomous driving and artificial intelligence. It is also a very advanced technology from a global perspective.
Previously, the advanced technology that Japan could produce was at the 28nm node. TSMC’s move has raised Japan’s local chip technology to two or three generations.
Due to the significant improvement in technology, the required investment has also reached 13.9 billion US dollars, nearly 100 billion yuan.The total investment in the two factories will reach US$22.5 billion.It contributed 3.4 trillion yen in investment to Japan, so Japanese officials also provided huge subsidies. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry invested 1.2 trillion yen to subsidize factories.
