By Austin Babb and Jason Wu

TSMC Raises CAPEX to Meet Demand

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) announced plans on April 1 to raise capital expenditures, committing an unprecedented US$100 billion over the next three years to expand production capacity in response to ongoing global shortages of chips and the strong demand for new technologies. In a statement, the company said the funds would also be used “to support the manufacturing and R&D of advanced semiconductor technologies,” and added that the company is “working closely with our customers to address their needs in a sustainable manner.”

The chipmaker originally planned to invest between US$25 billion and US$28 billion in advanced semiconductor manufacturing in 2021. However, despite TSMC’s foundries running at more than 100% capacity, production has still failed to meet the surging chip demand, the company said.

TSMC is entering “another period of higher growth,” according to the company’s vice president and chief financial officer Wendell Huang. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the development of technologies such as 5G and high-performance computing devices are expected to accelerate and transform global demand for semiconductors over the next few years.