Accra:Taipei Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is evaluating a potential collaboration with Elon Musk's Terafab project in Texas, according to C. C. Wei, chairman and CEO of TSMC. Wei emphasized that any collaboration would require the fab to be run by TSMC to ensure production control.
According to Focus Taiwan, the discussions with Terafab are ongoing, and no final decisions have been made. Wei's comments followed Musk's social media post that suggested TSMC might sublease part of Terafab.
TSMC is actively working to expand its capacity in the United States at the request of its major American clients. The U.S. government has provided assistance to facilitate this expansion. Wei highlighted that TSMC's production capacity using the latest 2-nanometer process is expected to more than double by 2027, driven by demand for smartphones, high-performance computing devices, and artificial intelligence applications.
TSMC is also developing the A14 process, with trial production set for 2027 and mass production planned for 2028. This new process is anticipated to offer significant improvements in speed and power efficiency over the current 2nm process.
Globally, TSMC is managing nearly 20 fab projects, including three new 3nm fabs. In Taiwan, a 3nm fab in Tainan is expected to begin mass production in the first half of 2027, with another set to start in 2028. In Arizona, a second fab using the 2nm process is slated to commence mass production by the third quarter of 2027.