Photo :webshot. 

June 13, 2022

Anna Murray 

On June 8, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) announced that it does not intend to build plants in Europe. The European Union introduced the European Chips Act on February 8 to address semiconductor shortages and strengthen Europe's technological leadership, naming TSMC as one of the like-minded partners with whom Europe would like to collaborate. Senior officials from both sides are said to have previously discussed chip cooperation. TSMC Chairman Mark Liu, however, stated during the annual shareholders' meeting that the number of clients in that region was lower than in other parts of the world.

As companies and governments work to resolve a global chip shortage that has harmed the auto industry in particular, TSMC, Asia's most valuable listed company, is investing $12 billion in semiconductor facilities in the United States and collaborating with Sony Group to establish a factory in Japan.

Meanwhile, the race between Samsung and TSMC is heating up, with the former set to start mass production of the world's first 3nm process-based chips in just a few weeks. The 3nm node from Samsung will be the world's first to use gate-all-around field effect transistors. According to TSMC, mass production of 3nm process-based chips using FinFET transistors rather than gate-all-around field effect transistors will begin in the second half of 2022.