Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) confirmed at the 2024 European Technology Forum that its German wafer fab project is scheduled to start construction in the fourth quarter of this year and is expected to be operational in 2027.
Last year, TSMC agreed to jointly establish the European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC) with three European chip companies - Bosch, Infineon, and NXP. TSMC holds a 70% stake in ESMC, while the other three companies each hold 10%.
ESMC's first wafer fab in Dresden, Germany focuses on automotive and industrial semiconductors, targeting mature processes such as 28/22nm planar CMOS and 16/12nm FinFET, rather than advanced processes.
Once completed, the wafer fab will have a capacity of 40,000 12-inch wafers per month.
In a news release in August 2023, the partners estimated that the total investment in ESMC will exceed 10 billion euros (approximately 78.2 billion RMB).
Zhang Xiaoqiang, TSMC's Co-CEO responsible for international business, told reporters that he believes ESMC's wafer fab project is expected to receive subsidies from the European Union and the German government.
Zhang stated that ESMC will bring the most advanced microcontroller (MCU) technology to the heart of automotive applications, while not ruling out TSMC's possibility of further expanding its investments in Europe in the future.