By Liu Chien-ling and James Lo
TAIPEI, Taiwan, (CNA) – The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on Thursday approved a plan by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to build a semiconductor fab in Dresden, Germany.
As the plant will be manufacturing 300 mm (12-inch) wafers produced on TSMC’s 28/22 nanometer planar CMOS and 16/12 nm FinFET process technology, there won’t be concerns over the company’s advanced manufacturing technologies being leaked to other countries, MOEA’s department of investment review said in a press release.
Additionally, the department said it has decided to approve the plan because TSMC’s presence in Germany will not only enable the company to cultivate closer relationships with its European customers, it will also help sustain the growth of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry and strengthen its supply chain connectivity.
An official from the department further explained that TSMC and its joint venture partners have already launched the preliminary process of the plant with 100,000 euros (US$105,505).
Of the sum, TSMC chipped in 70,000 euros, which, when added into the 3.499 billion euros that the company plans to invest in the project, means that the Taiwanese chipmaker will invest a total of 3.5 billion euros to the project, the official said.
In August, TSMC’s board of directors approved the joint venture investment to build a semiconductor fab in Dresden.
The project, called the European Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., will be 70 percent owned by TSMC, while investment partners Bosch, Infineon Technologies and NXP Semiconductors will each have a 10 percent stake, the company said in a statement published on its website.
TSMC aims to begin constructing the plant in the second half of 2024 and to start production there by the end of 2027.