Driven by AI Boom, TSMC to Invest $2.9 Bln in Advanced Chip Plant in Taiwan 

A smartphone with a displayed TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. (Reuters)
A smartphone with a displayed TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. (Reuters)
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Driven by AI Boom, TSMC to Invest $2.9 Bln in Advanced Chip Plant in Taiwan 

A smartphone with a displayed TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. (Reuters)
A smartphone with a displayed TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. (Reuters)

Driven by a surge in demand for artificial intelligence, Taiwanese chip maker TSMC plans to invest nearly T$90 billion ($2.87 billion) in an advanced packaging facility in northern Taiwan, the company said on Tuesday.

"To meet market needs, TSMC is planning to establish an advanced packaging fab in the Tongluo Science Park," the company said in a statement.

CEO C.C. Wei said last week that TSMC is unable to fulfil customer demand driven by the AI boom and plans to roughly double its capacity for advanced packaging - which involves placing multiple chips into a single device, lowering the added cost of more powerful computing.

For advanced packaging, especially TSMC's chip on wafer on substrate (CoWoS), capacity is "very tight," Wei said after the company reported a 23% fall in second-quarter profit.

"We are increasing our capacity as quickly as possible. We expect this tightening will be released next year, probably towards the end of next year."

The world's largest contract chipmaker said TSMC's position as the leading manufacturer of AI chips - including for chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices - has not offset broader end market weakness as the global economy recovers more slowly than it had expected.

The Tongluo Science Park administration has officially approved TSMC's application to lease land, the company said, adding the new plant in the northern county of Miaoli would create about 1500 jobs.

Even as the leading Apple supplier ramps up its expansion abroad, it plans to keep its most advanced chip technology in Taiwan, a global powerhouse in manufacturing semiconductors that power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles.



Trump Joins Tech and Energy Executives amid AI Push

A car drives past a building of the Digital Reality Data Center in Ashburn, Virginia, US, March 17, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
A car drives past a building of the Digital Reality Data Center in Ashburn, Virginia, US, March 17, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
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Trump Joins Tech and Energy Executives amid AI Push

A car drives past a building of the Digital Reality Data Center in Ashburn, Virginia, US, March 17, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
A car drives past a building of the Digital Reality Data Center in Ashburn, Virginia, US, March 17, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo

President Donald Trump will join executives from some of the largest US tech and energy companies for a summit in Pittsburgh on Tuesday as the administration prepares fresh measures to power the US expansion of artificial intelligence.

Top economic rivals US and China are locked in a technological arms race over who can dominate AI as the technology takes on increasing importance everywhere from corporate boardrooms to the battlefield.

The Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University is expected to bring tech executives and officials from top energy and tech firms including Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet and Exxon Mobil to discuss how to position the US as a leader in AI. Trump will use the summit - put together by US Senator Dave McCormick, a Republican ally from Pennsylvania - to announce some $70 billion in artificial intelligence and energy investments in the state, Reuters reported.

Big Tech is scrambling to secure vast amounts of electricity supplies to power the energy-guzzling data centers needed for its rapid expansion of artificial intelligence. Companies began announcing their plans in early on Tuesday, with Google inking a $3 billion electricity deal and CoreWeave touting a $6 billion AI data center.

Google will invest $25 billion in regional data centers, while FirstEnergy will invest $15 billion in Pennsylvania's energy grid, Semafor reported. The CEOs expected to attend include Khaldoon Al-Mubarak of Mubadala, Rene Haas of Arm, Larry Fink of BlackRock, Darren Woods of ExxonMobil, Brendan Bechtel of Bechtel and Dario Amodei of Anthropic. The White House is considering executive actions in the coming weeks to make it easier for power-generating projects to connect to the grid and also provide federal land on which to build the data centers needed to expand AI technology, Reuters previously reported.

The administration is also weighing streamlining permitting for data centers by creating a nationwide Clean Water Act permit, rather than requiring companies to seek permits on a state-by-state basis.

Mike Sommers, head of the influential American Petroleum Institute, said executive action is welcomed to unlock the energy needed to power the data centers, but a more durable solution is needed.

"Real durable permitting reform requires an act of Congress, not just an executive order," Sommers said in an interview with Reuters. Trump ordered his administration in January to produce an AI Action Plan that would make "America the world capital in artificial intelligence" and reduce regulatory barriers to its rapid expansion.

That report, which includes input from the National Security Council, is due by July 23. The White House is considering making July 23 "AI Action Day" to draw attention to the report and demonstrate its commitment to expanding the industry, Reuters has reported.

US power demand is hitting record highs this year after nearly two decades of stagnation as AI and cloud computing data centers balloon in numbers and size across the country. The demand is also leading to unprecedented deals between the power industry and technology companies, including the attempted restart of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania between Constellation Energy and Microsoft.

The surge has led to concerns about power shortages that threaten to raise electricity bills and increase the risk of blackouts, while slowing Big Tech in its global race against countries like China to dominate artificial intelligence.