• Taiwanese company is expected to see its fourth-quarter revenue outpace the guidance given in mid-October.

Bengaluru: Board of directors at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, has approved the $3.5 billion investment for setting up a subsidiary in Arizona, where the pure-play foundry plans to build a wafe fab using 5nm process technology.

The Arizona fab project, announced in May this year, is expected to start construction in 2021 followed by production in 2024.

Company said in a statement that the planned facility seeks to cater to customer needs rather than based on political considerations amid concerns that Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election might change TSMC’s plan.

The openings mostly focus on R&D engineers, process integration engineers, module process engineers, module equipment engineers, facility mechanical engineers and equipment automation software engineers.

3nm production facility on track

TSMC said its board of directors also approved capital appropriations of about $15.1 billion for the installation and expansion of advanced technology capacity, installation of speciality technology capacity, installation and upgrading of advanced packaging capacity, as well as fab construction, installation of fab facility systems and capitalised leased assets, and first-quarter 2021 R&D capital investments and sustaining capital expenditures.

Moreover, TSMC is on track to set up its 3nm production facility at Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) and ready to start production on a mass scale in 2022.

According to industry sources, the Taiwanese company is expected to see its fourth-quarter revenue outpace the guidance given in mid-October, driven by additional 5nm and 7nm chip output, despite Huawei sanctions weighing on its October sales.

In October, TSMC said its fourth-quarter revenue is expected to be up 29 per cent to 33 per cent annually, to a range of $12.4 billion to $12.7 billion.

For the full year, the company expects a growth of 30 per cent.